Atwal paired with Greg Owen, Scott McCarron in Players C'ship

Miami, Mar 23 (UNI) Former Asian Tour number one Arjun Atwal will take his place alongside the game's luminaries when he makes his debut in The Players Championship at Sawgrass, Florida starting later today.

The talented Indian, who has plied his trade with great success on the US PGA Tour for the past two seasons, is in the elite field this week where he hopes to eclipse the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh.

Atwal will play the opening two rounds with England's Greg Owen, whose late collapse last Sunday cost him the Bay Hill Invitational title, and American Scott McCarron.

Regarded as the unofficial fifth major of the world, the Players Championship offers a total prize money of eight million dollars, with the winner taking home 1.4 million.

Other former Asian Tour stalwarts who are in the elite field include Korea's Choi Kyung-ju and Kevin Na, Sweden's Daniel Chopra and American Ted Purdy.

This season, Atwal has already posted one top-10 at the Buick Invitational where he finished fourth, one shot shy of joining a three-way play-off won eventually by world number one Woods. His form, however, dipped in recent times with the Orlando-based Kolkata pro missing two successive cuts in the Honda Classic and Bay Hill Invitational.

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