Bhullar, Kapur to fight for a berth in The Open next week

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 18 (PTI) Rising golfer GaganjeetBhullar and three other Indians will be fighting for a berthin the Open Championships when they tee up at the OpenChampionship International Final Qualifying � Asia next week.

There are four berths at stake at the two-day qualifierat Amata Spring Country Club in Bangkok on February 24-25,2011 and beside Bhullar, Shiv Kapur, Anirban Lahiri and HimmatRai will be part of the field of 77 players.

Home heroes Thaworn Wiratchant and Prayad Marksaeng, whohold a combined 19 Asian Tour titles between them, will alsobe seen in action at the qualifier.

Liang Wen-chong, China''s first Asian Tour Order of Meritchampion in 2007, will bid for a second appearance in theworld''s oldest Major and will be joined by top contendersincluding Pariya Junhasavasdikul and Kiradech Aphibarnrat ofThailand, Bangladeshi Siddikur and Singaporean veteran MardanMamat, all top-10 finishers on the Order of Merit last season.

There will be as many as 25 Tour winners at the IFQ Asiato gain a place at Royal St George''s, England from July 14-17.

Both Kapur and Bhullar, have previously played in theOpen. The same goes for Australia''s Scott Hend and Darren Beckand England''s Miles Tunnicliff, a winner on the European Tour.

Malaysia''s Danny Chia, who made history when he qualifiedand subsequently played four rounds at the Open at St Andrewslast year, will also bid for a fourth appearance in thechampionship.

Japanese amateur Hideki Matsuyama, who won the AsianAmateur Championship on home soil last year, will also be inthe qualifier where he hopes to emulate Korea''s amateur EricChun, who qualified last year in Malaysia.

This is the first time that the IFQ Asia is being held inThailand after previously be staged in Malaysia and Singapore.