Subcontinental stars gear up for Women’s Indian Open golf

GURGAON - A group of professional golfers of Indian and sub-continental origin will challenge the best of Europe and Asian players here at the Hero Honda Womens Indian open golf.

The tournament will be held Nov 11-13 at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

Some of the names may be familiar but there are some who are seeking a place for themselves on either the Asian or European Tours.

They will battle with European No. 1 and 2 Lee Anne Pace of South Africa and Laura Davies and Asia No. 1 Phatlum Pornanong, who has twice won the Indian Open.

A total of 123 players will be playing for a total purse of $300,000, the highest ever in the history of womens professional golf.

Kiran Matharu is an English national of Indian origin and has played in India in the past. She will now be joined by the likes of Sahra Hassan of Wales, who last year made her pro debut at the Indian Open.

Then there is Salimah Mussani of Canada, who has fought health conditions - Lupus - to stay on with professional golf. Also teeing up will be fellow Canadian of Indian origin Seema Sadekar. She is following in the footsteps of her elder sister, Nisha, with whom she has set up a golf events management company and also an apparel business.

Mussani, whose family hails from East Africa, has origins going back to the sub-continent. Born in a family of pharmacists, she has braved her health condition to keep playing.

Salimah was diagnosed with Lupus in her junior year at Stanford in 2000. Lupus is an autoimmune disorder where ones body, essentially, attacks itself. Salimah, daughter of a physician and a pharmacist, saw and met numerous doctors and also tried medications.

Salimah suffered with inflammation of the blood vessels and organs when temperatures were too hot. She sometimes lost the feel in her hands completely when temperatures were too cold and thus later was advised to quit playing.

Though Salimah still suffers from the disease, she refuses to give up on golf.