The Road to Mallorca returns this week after a four-week break for the Kolkata Challenge at Royal Calcutta Golf Club. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the first of back-to-back weeks in India…
Steeped in history
Royal Calcutta Golf Club returns to the HotelPlanner Tour schedule for the second successive year after making its debut as a host venue on the Road to Mallorca 12 months ago. Steeped in history, Royal Calcutta is the oldest golf club outside of Great Britain and has a proud record of producing some of India’s finest players. One of those is four-time DP World Tour winner, S.S.P Chawrasia, who grew up a stone’s throw from the parkland layout, and who will be teeing it up this week.
The West Bengal club was founded back in 1829 and was bestowed its Royal title 81 years after its inception after King George V & Queen Mary visited in 1911. Memorabilia dating back to when it was founded is still preserved in the clubhouse.
Co-sanctioned
This week sees the first of two co-sanctioned events between the HotelPlanner Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) and will see India’s best players tee it up alongside some of Europe’s leading lights.
Last year was a fine example of players from both continents going head-to-head, with eventual winner Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and home-favourite, Rahil Gangjee, battling for the title in the final group on Sunday in front of a bumper crowd in Tollygunge. Dane Neergaard-Petersen led by four strokes going into the final round and despite seeing his lead cut to one heading into the back nine, he ran out a two-stroke victor. That would be the first of three wins on the 2024 Road to Mallorca for the 25-year-old which earned him automatic promotion to the DP World Tour.
Winning mark
Royal Calcutta Golf Club is a regular stop for the PGTI, with Om Prakash Chouhan having won in Kolkata in 2023 – the same year in which he became a winner on the HotelPlanner Tour - and former DP World Tour player Manu Gandas doing so in 2022. Both are in the field this week looking to win on the parkland layout for a second time.
Winning totals have varied from six under par to Neergaard-Petersen’s 16 under par mark last term, with strategically placed water tanks, natural water hazards and tree-lined fairways all set to make scoring challenging this week.
