RAWALPINDI, April 2: The Chief Executive Gold Medal Open Golf Championship starts at the international standard Rawalpindi Golf Course from Thursday.

A record number of 60 professionals, besides a minimum of 116 amatuers, will feature in the Mobilink-sponsored Championship - carrying prize money of Rs.300,000.

It will be the second time, after 2001, that the tournament will be held as an “open” event, comprising the categories of: professionals, senior professionals, amateurs, senior amateurs and ladies section.

A total of Rs. 260,000 will be distributed in the regular professionals category while a sum of Rs. 40, 000 has been earmarked for the senior professionals who will be of the age of 50 and above.

The regular amateurs will play with handicaps of 16 and below while senior amateurs, of the age of 55 and above, will enter the field with handicaps of 18 and below. Up to 60 entries for seniors amateur have been received so far.

Top 10 professionals of the country, including the defending champion Shabbir Iqbal of Pakistan Navy, will gain automatic entry in the main round which gets underway on Friday while a day earlier qualifiers will be held among 85 entrants.

The main amateur event will also be held from Friday with budding Farid Butter of Rawalpindi to defend his title. The qualifers will be held Thursday.

Barring the main professional and amateur events on 54 holes, the competitions in the remaining three categories will be restricted to 36 holes i.e. the last two days.

The organisers of the championship expect larger number of ladies contestants this time around with about 15 entries already received.

Mehvish Javed will vie for a second consecutive ladies crown.

The top-notcher in the professionals category will fetch Rs. 48, 000 and the prizes in this category will be distributed among the top 30 as against in the senior professionals section in which only the top four will be renumerated.

The top 10 professionals to gain automatic qualification are: Shabbir Iqbal (Pakistan Navy), Matloob Ahmed (Railways), Muhammad Tariq (PTCL), Abbas Ali (Lahore), Imdad Hussain (Railways), Muhammad Munir (Islamabad), Muhammad Akram (Lahore), Muhammad Tahir (Lahore), Muhammad Sajid (Rawalpindi) and Muhammad Irfan (Rawalpindi) and Ghulam Nabi (Lahore).

The last two are joint 10th under the rankings of Pakistan Golf Federation. —APP