Seven of Asia top 10 for Hero Honda Masters

The fourth edition of the $200,000 Hero Honda Masters, the 16th leg of the Asian PGA Davidoff Tour, will feature one of the strongest starting fields with seven of the top-10 ranked player on the Order of Merit entering for the tournament, which begins at the DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon from November 2.

Leading the field will be the top four players in Asia - Taiwan's Yeh Wei-tze, defending champion Jyoti Randhawa of India, England's two-time winner on the Tour, Simon Dyson, and Craig Kamps of South Africa.

Yeh has led the table since the first tournament of the season when he won the $-825,000 Benson & Hedges Malaysian Open in February, but has done little of note thereafter, save for qualifying for the British Open this year where he missed the cut. Son of a fisherman, Yeh has earned $-161,827 this season on the Asian PGA Tour. Randhawa is second at $-141,901, while the Yorkshireman is third at $-134,656.

Yeh and Randhawa are involved in a pitched battle for top honours on the Tour and a record-breaking third victory here would give Randhawa the lead, provided Yeh does not occupy the sole second place.

The winner's cheque in Hero Honda Masters 2000 is worth $32,300, while the runner-up gets $22,260.

Dyson, who shot into fame with an opening round 66 during the Wills Indian Open at Classic Golf Resort, Gurgaon, later won the Macau Open and the Volvo China Open in successive weeks. Dyson can also move to the top of the Order of Merit, provided he wins his third title of the season and the top two players falter.

The other top-10 players in the fray are No 6 Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand, who has won the Casino Filipino Open this season; No 7 South African James Kingston, winner of London Myanmar Open and Ericsson Classic this season and No 10 Andrew Pitts of the United States.

The Hero Honda Masters will thus feature seven winners on the Tour this season who have won nine events out of 14 tournaments held so far. Dyson and Kingston are two-time winners, while the others are Soushi Tajima of Japan (Q-School); Yeh Wei-tze (Malaysian Open); Marksaeng (Casino Filipino Open); Randhawa (Wills Indian Open) and Stephen Lindskog of Sweden (Volvo Masters of Malaysia).