Baisoya vs Bhullar: Indian Golf Stars Clash at Royal Johannesburg

The venue this week is the legacy-laden Royal Johannesburg Golf Club, long considered as one of the finest in Africa and the world. The AM Green IGPL Invitational South Africa is the second event in the African leg and the third overall in a schedule of 15 events planned for the 2026 season.

The players will compete at the Par-72 Royal Johannesburg West Course. The Royal Johannesburg has in the past hosted the National Open of South Africa and the famous Joburg Open.

Getting into action alongside the four-time winner on the AM Green IGPL Tour, Bhullar, who won this year's opening event in Chandigarh, will be Sachin Baisoya, last week's winner in Mauritius. The win lifted a huge weight off the consistent Baisoya's shoulder, as time and again he had come close without closing the deal. However, his first big win on the AM Green IGPL followed his numerous other previous professional wins in India.

The other leading stars include the highly promising 18-year-old Veer Ganapathy, who led for two rounds before ending second in Mauritius; Karandeep Kochhar, fresh from a Top-5 finish in the International Series in Japan; Aman Raj, a multiple winner on the IGPL in 2025; and Pukhraj Singh Gill, the winner of the AM Green IGPL Order of Merit in 2025.

Also lining up will be Shiv Kapur, a multiple winner on the Asian Tour, who has mixed memories of South Africa, as he finished runner-up at the SA Open back in 2010, when he lost the title in a play-off.

Others teeing up this week include Olympian Udayan Mane; former Asian Tour winner, Chiragh Kumar; the highly experienced and three-time Asian Tour winner, Gaurav Ghei; former Indian Open winner, C Muniyappa; winner on AM Green IGPL in 2025, Kapil Kumar; Varun Parikh and Aryan Roopa Anand.

The field of 58 players includes 10 women, who play on the Women's Golf Association of India (WGAI) Tour. Some of them also play on the Ladies European Tour.

The women players this week include prolific winners on the WGAI circuit, Vani Kapoor, Ridhima Dilawari, Vidhatri Urs and Neha Tripathi among others. The promising duo of Mannat Brar and Heena Kang will also be in focus.

The field also includes six South Africans, one of whom is an amateur, Kaiden Chetty, a promising young star, who has played well in numerous junior events in South Africa and also at the Junior Dubai Desert Classic.

The current individual standings see Mauritius winner Sachin Baisoya (Phoenix Hyderabad) on the top with Rs. 32,10,000 in kitty and he is followed by the Chandigarh winner, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Vimtra Chennai) with Rs. 24,96,00 and lying third is Veer Ganapathy of GolfKonnekt Bangalore with Rs. 17,73,038.

The top woman player last week inn IGPL Mauritius was Ridhima Dilawari in Tied-11th place.

Following the auction and formation of ten team on the AM Green IGPL, the battle for team honours will continue at the Royal Johannesburg Golf Club. The race to be the best team on the AM Green IGPL league competition started in Mauritius and the leaders after the first event are Phoenix Hyderabad, which includes the winner in Mauritius, Sachin Baisoya, Raghav Chugh, Arjun Bhati and Ranjit Singh.

Chasing them hard are Atri Mumbai (Aman Raj, Aadil Bedi, Udayan Mane and Tushar Pannu), while RVR Delhi (Shiv Kapur, Gaurav Ghei, Chiragh Kumar and Aryan Roopa Anand) are third.

The winning team at each of the AM Green IGPL event is decided by the cumulative scores of two best cards each day from among the four team members. The winning team gets 100 points and the next best gets 90 and the third placed team earns 80 points. The list goes down to the tenth placed team, which gets 10 points.

The champion team for 2026 will be decided by the total points at the end of the season.

- IANS