Greater Noida, 6 October 2026: The Kapil Dev Invitational Tour Championship gets under way at the Jaypee Greens Golf and Spa Resort on Wednesday, with a purse of Rs 2 crore and the last places in the top 24 of the Race to DP World India Championship to play for.
The four-day event, from 7 to 10 October, is in its fourth edition and is being staged as the Tour Championship for the first time. It brings together 64 professionals, including the top 60 on the DP World PGTI Order of Merit.
What is at stake
The tournament is the final event of the season-long Race to DP World India Championship. Once it ends, the top 24 in the standings will be confirmed for the DP World India Championship.
Order of Merit leader Saptak Talwar will be playing on his home course. Khalin Joshi, second on the Order of Merit, arrives in form after winning the Bengaluru Open for his fourth title of the season. The 2025 Order of Merit champion Yuvraj Sandhu and Shubhankar Sharma are also in the field, along with Veer Ahlawat, Honey Baisoya, Akshay Sharma, Rashid Khan, Amardeep Malik and Arjun Sharma.
Talwar, Joshi, Sandhu and Shubhankar posed with the trophy alongside DP World PGTI president Kapil Dev at the tournament’s inauguration on Tuesday.
International challenge
Ten overseas players from eight countries are entered: N Thangaraja (Sri Lanka), Michele Ortolani (Italy), Jamal Hossain, Badal Hossain and Md Akbar Hossain (Bangladesh), Subash Tamang (Nepal), Stepan Danek (Czech Republic), Joshua Seale (Uganda), Tanapat Pichaikool (Thailand) and Koichiro Ishika (Japan).
A pro-am format
The professionals play 72 holes of stroke play. Alongside them, each professional is paired with an amateur, and the pairs compete in a modified scramble over all four rounds. The professional’s score counts on both the main leaderboard and the pro-am leaderboard, with prizes for the top three pro-am teams each round.
Kapil Dev said: “I am delighted to see the Kapil Dev Invitational return for its fourth edition as the Tour Championship. It is particularly gratifying that the tournament brings together the best professionals on the Tour while also creating an opportunity for amateurs to experience the competitive environment of professional golf.”
DP World PGTI chief executive Amandeep Johl said the elite field of the top 60 would be competing “for the prestigious trophy and the last opportunity to seal their spots in the top-24 of the Race to DP World India Championship”.
