El Jadida (Morocco), May 26 (IANS) Indian golfers will mount a strong challenge at the inaugural IGPL Morocco Rising Stars as the Indian Golf Premier League Tour arrives in North Africa for the next leg of its 2026 international calendar.

The tournament, scheduled from May 28-31 at the Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort in El Jadida, will be played over 72 holes and carries a prize purse of USD 160,000. The event is co-sanctioned by the AM Green IGPL and the Asian Development Tour (ADT).

The Morocco Rising Stars event will kick off a three-week golfing stretch in the country. It will be followed by the AM Green IGPL Bharath Classic from June 4-7 at the same venue, before the USD 2 million International Series Morocco presented by Visit Morocco takes place from June 11-14.

A large Indian contingent will feature across all three tournaments as the North African swing concludes the overseas phase of the tour.

The field for the Morocco Rising Stars event includes three of the four winners from the AM Green IGPL Tour this season, along with all four winners from the ADT in 2026 so far. Nine of the top 10 players in the ADT Order of Merit are also set to compete.

This marks the first time the IGPL is being held in Morocco. The tournament will also provide an important platform for emerging golfers from both tours, with the ADT serving as the developmental circuit for the Asian Tour.

Uttam Singh Mundy, CEO of IGPL, said, “This is a very exciting phase of the IGPL. We had successful outings in Mauritius, South Africa and Congo and now a co-sanctioned event in Morocco. It opens a whole new world for our golfers and Pukhraj Gill’s recent success in Malaysia and Manav Shah’s qualification for US Open shows that our golfers are benefitting from international exposure and stronger competition. Morocco is a great golfing destination and I am sure our players will enjoy the place and the golf courses and benefit from it.”

The Indian challenge will be spearheaded by Pukhraj Singh Gill, winner of the 2025 AM Green IGPL Order of Merit and recent ADT winner in Malaysia. He will be joined by Karandeep Kochhar, who competes regularly on both the ADT and the Asian Tour and won an ADT title in Egypt last year.

Also in the field are India’s top-ranked AM Green IGPL player Sachin Baisoya, alongside Veer Ganapathy and Aman Raj, who currently occupy third and fifth positions respectively in the rankings.

Other prominent Indian names include two-time Asian Tour winner Rashid Khan, Shaurya Bhattacharya, Shubham Jaglan, Kartik Singh and former Asian Tour winner Khalin Joshi.

The tournament will be staged at the Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort, an 18-hole course on Morocco’s Atlantic coast designed by nine-time Major winner Gary Player. Considered one of the longest golf courses in Morocco, the venue is known for its scenic ocean views and demanding layout.

The ADT made its debut in Morocco last year with two Morocco Rising Stars events, won by Filipino cousins Aidric Chan and Carl Jano Corpus, both of whom return to the field this week.

The Morocco Rising Stars event is the fifth stop on both the 2026 ADT calendar and the AM Green IGPL Tour. Earlier events this season were held in Chandigarh, Mauritius, Johannesburg and Congo. Following the Morocco leg, the tour will return to India for most of its remaining events.

–IANS

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