Tata Steel Tour Championship will be held at the Beldih and Golmuri golf courses from Thursday, December 17 to 20 with a prize purse of Rs 1.5 crore.

The tournament, hosted by the Tata Steel Group and PGTI, will feature a field of 125 professionals. It will be the seventh event of the 2020-21 Tata Steel PGTI season. It will be a 72-hole stroke-play championship and there will be a cut applied after 36 holes.

The Pro-Am event preceding the tournament will be played on Wednesday. It will be for the first time in six years that a PGTI event in Jamshedpur will be jointly staged at both Beldih and Golmuri golf courses.

In round one, one half of the field will play its 18 holes at Beldih Golf Club while the other half of the field will play its 18 holes at the Golmuri Golf Club. In round two, both halves of the field will switch venues. In rounds three and four, after the cut has been applied, all players will tee off from Golmuri and play their first nine holes at Golmuri before moving to Beldih to play their second nine holes.

The tournament will feature a star-studded field, including Indian golfing greats such as Anirban Lahiri (7 international wins), SSP Chawrasia (6 international wins), Gaganjeet Bhullar (10 international wins), Jyoti Randhawa (9 international wins), Shiv Kapur (6 international wins) and Rahil Gangjee (3 international wins).

The other prominent names in the field include defending champion Udayan Mane, India’s highest-ranked golfer Rashid Khan (282 in the world rankings), PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Khalin Joshi, Chikkarangappa and Viraj Madappa, to name a few.

Former Asia No. 1, PGA Tour regular and Olympian Anirban Lahiri, will be returning to play in Jamshedpur after nearly 13 years. Lahiri, a two-time winner on the European Tour, last played in Jamshedpur during the 6th Tata Open in January 2008.

Shiv Kapur, a four-time winner on the Asian Tour, will return to play in Jamshedpur after 16 years. Kapur last played in Jamshedpur at the 3rd Tata Open in November 2004 where he finished runner-up.

Addressing a press meet at Beldih Club on Tuesday, Tata Steel vice-president (safety, health and sustainability) and captain of Jamshedpur Golf Club Sanjiv Paul said: “It is heartening to see the initiative taken by PGTI to continue with the golf tour this year even during these difficult times. The format of this year’s tournament will be an exciting challenge for professional golfers as it will be played over two golf courses – Beldih and Golmuri. It is befitting that the top professionals of the country will be competing for the top honours.”

Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO of PGTI said: “We thank Tata Steel for being a pillar of PGTI even in these challenging times. The tournament promises to be a spectacle for golf fans as some of the leading lights of Indian golf are part of it.”

Strict Covid protocols will be adopted during the course of the four-day tournament.