Arjun Atwal

Arjun Singh Atwal (born 20 March 1973) is an Indian professional golfer who has played on the Asian Tour and the European Tour and is the first player born in India to become a member of, and later win on the U.S.-based PGA Tour.

Early life

Born in a Sikh family to Harminder Singh Atwal (a well known industrialist) of Asansol and Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Atwal took up golf at the age of fourteen, playing at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club and Tollygunge Club. He also spent two years at school in the United States, attending W. Tresper Clarke High School, in Westbury, New York. His elder brother Govind Singh Atwal is also a keen golfer.

Career

After turning professional in 1995 he became one of the leading players on the Asian Tour, topping the order of merit in 2003 and becoming the first man to win a million U.S. dollars on the tour by winning the Hero Honda Masters on home soil in the same year. Atwal was the second Indian golfer to earn membership of the European Tour after Jeev Milkha Singh and the first to win on a European Tour event when he notched up a five stroke victory in the 2002 Caltex Singapore Masters, which was co-sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours. A second European Tour win followed at the Carlsberg Malaysian Open in 2003. Late in the same year Atwal finished seventh at the PGA Tour's qualifying school in the U.S., earning a PGA Tour card for 2004, making him the first native East Indian golfer to do so. (The most famous golfer of Indian...
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