Rahil Gangjee (born 2 October 1978) is a professional golfer from India who currently plays on the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wo ...

, where he has two victories.

Early life and amateur career

Gangjee was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, but now resides in Bengaluru. He was educated at

La Martiniere Calcutta ''La Martiniere ''(informally known as LMC) is an elite, independent private day school located in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal. It comprises two single-gender boys and girls schools. It was established in 1836 in accordance with the will of ...

. He had a decorated amateur career that included the 1997 Sri Lankan Amateur and the East India Amateur in 1997, 1998 and 2000. He would soon become India's number one amateur in 1999. He kept the title of being India's top ranked amateur by winning the Northern India Amateur in 2000. In the same year he won the Western India Amateur, by a margin of 19 strokes.

Professional career

Gangjee turned professional in 2001 by finishing as a runner up in the PGA of India Tour qualifying school. He won in his very first year as a professional in Lucknow. He played in his first full season on the

in 2004. Just as he had won in his first year on the PGA of India Tour, he also won in his debut year on the Asia Tour. Gangjee was a surprise winner in his lone tournament victory at the

Volkswagen Masters-China The Volkswagen Masters-China was an event that was played on the Asian Tour from 2004 to 2006. It was played in Beijing, China. The purse was $300,000. The only multiple winner of the event was Retief Goosen, who won the event back-to-back in 20 ...

in 2004. It was only his 4th start of the season and 8th career start on Tour. He finished at 15-under-par and won in a playoff over

Mo Joong-kyung Mo Joong-kyung (; born 23 August 1971) is a professional golfer from South Korea who currently plays on the Asian Tour, where he has won twice. Early life Mo was born in Seoul and turned professional in 1995. Professional career After turning p ...

. The event featured many notable names including

Ian Woosnam Ian Harold Woosnam (born 2 March 1958) is a Welsh professional golfer. Nicknamed 'Woosie', Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europe ...

, Nick Faldo,

Phillip Price John Phillip Price (born 21 October 1966) is a Welsh professional golfer who plays on the European Senior Tour. He won three European Tour events between 1994 and 2003 and played in the 2002 Ryder Cup. Early life Price was born in 1966 in Pon ...

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, Des Terblanche and

Zhang Lianwei Zhang Lianwei (; born 2 May 1965) is a Chinese professional golfer. Zhang was the first golfer from the People's Republic of China to achieve substantial success on the international professional circuit. In January 2003 he became the first Ch ...

. Gangjee would continue playing full-time on the Asian Tour, not picking up another tournament win between 2004 and 2008. He made 16 of 25 cuts with only one top-10 finish in 2008. He did however pick up a win in June 2008 at the PGTI Players Championship on the Professional Golf Tour of India in his hometown of Calcutta by a margin of five strokes. At the end of 2010 Gangjee qualified for the Nationwide Tour. At the 2011

Mylan Classic The Mylan Classic was a golf tournament on the Web.com Tour. It was played for the first time in September 2010 at Southpointe Golf Club in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The title sponsor was Mylan, a pharmaceuticals company ba ...

, Gangjee made an

ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

on the par-4 15th hole during the final round. He used driver to pull off the 318 yard shot. Gangjee played on the Nationwide Tour in 2011 and 2012 and then returned to the Asian Tour. His best finish on the Nationwide Tour was T-11 at the 2011

Rex Hospital Open The Rex Hospital Open is a regular golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour. It is played annually at the TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wa ...

. Gangjee's next significant win came in April 2018 in Japan when he won the Panasonic Open Golf Championship. This secured his

Japan Golf Tour The Japan Golf Tour ( ja, 日本ゴルフツアー機構) is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third-highest annual prize fund out of the regular (that is not for seniors) men's professional tours after th ...

card for the following 3 years. He also won the Louis Philippe Cup (an Asian Development Tour) event in the same year.

Personal life

Rahil Gangjee participated in most sports in this school life. He represented his school

in swimming from the early age of 6. He also excelled in elocution, won plenty of times for Martin House. He ended his school life playing Hockey for his school and was the fastest runner in the 100 meters and 200 meters in class 11 and 12. He was prefect for house Martin and even sang for the choir. Rahil was interested in horseback riding, but his father made him give it up because he believed it was too dangerous as it could be too detrimental for his potential career in golf . Rahil is a member of

Royal Calcutta Golf Club Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) in Kolkata, India was established in 1829 and is the oldest golf club in India and the first outside Great Britain. RCGC has an 18-hole golf course with the following detail: *Yardage: 7195/6871 *Par: 72 *Ratin ...

and

Tollygunge Club The Tollygunge Club (Bengali: টালিগঞ্জ ক্লাব), popularly called Tolly, is a country club in India, located in Tollygunge in south Kolkata. Sir William Cruikshank established the club as an equestrian sports facility i ...

, where he grew up and honed his golfing skills. Gangjee credits

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 a tournament on the U.S.-based PGA Tour. ...

(a former Asian Number One), as his inspiration. Atwal lived three doors down from Gangjee in Calcutta.

Amateur wins

*1997 Sri Lankan Amateur, East India Amateur *1998 East India Amateur *2000 East India Amateur, Western India Amateur, Northern India Amateur

Professional wins (6)

Japan Golf Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

Asian Tour wins (2)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

Asian Tour playoff record (1–1)

Asian Development Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the Professional Golf Tour of India

Professional Golf Tour of India wins (3)

¹Co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour

Other wins (1)

*2001 HT Pro Golf Lucknow

Playoff record

Challenge Tour playoff record (0–1)

Team appearances

Amateur *

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eise ...

(representing India):

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gangjee, Rahil Indian male golfers Asian Tour golfers PGA Tour golfers Golfers from West Bengal Sportspeople from Kolkata 1978 births Living people