Chennai, Aug 18 - The cream of Indian professionals will battle it out for honours in the Aircel Professional Golf Tour of India's Madras Gymkhana Club Tamil Nadu Open tournament, from here Wednesday.

The tournament, offering a prize-money of Rs 20 lakh, and commemorating the club's 125th year, will conclude Aug 22 while a Pro-Am is scheduled for the following day.

The star-studded field will include the likes of Mukesh Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Digvijay Singh, C. Muniyappa, Shamim Khan, Rahul Ganapathy, Harendra Gupta and local favourite, Sandeep Syal.

The venue - MGC, Chennai - was established in 1877 and boasts one of the oldest golf courses in the country - a venue for many prestigious tournaments. The MGC is one of only four courses in the world to be situated inside a race course. Its key features include thick rough, tough fairways, fast greens and windy conditions.

The inaugural edition of the Tamil Nadu Open was held here in 2008, when a group of golf enthusiasts in Chennai came together to promote golf in Tamil Nadu and bring competitive professional golf back to the state after a gap of three years.