Sports

Sunday November 8, 2009

A classic example

Feature by MALKEET KAUR


The Professional Golf Tour of India has made huge strides in the right direction in recent seasons, something Malaysia could learn from.

A LITTLE over four years ago, the Indian PGA Tour was in decline due to a difference of opinions as well as personality clashes between the Professional Golfers Association of India (PGAI) and the marketing company appointed to run the Tour.

In late 2006, several top players and board members of the PGAI, unhappy with the situation, resigned from the association and formed the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), a body by the players and for the players.

The gallery at the final hole.

During the recent Hero Honda Indian Open at the DLF Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon, I met up with Padamjit Singh Sandhu, the Business Head & Director - Sales and Marketing of the PGTI, who gave me a quick run-down of the past turbulence faced by the domestic Tour and I couldn’t help but think of the our own Malaysian Professional Golf Association (MPGA).

Unhappy players, lack of tournaments and sponsors, disgruntled officials, the politics, the divided factions and etc. – maladies that have also plagued professional golf in Malaysia for the longest time now. While we are keeping our fingers crossed with hopes that the current solution works out for professional golf here, Indian professional golf has long put their troubles behind them and are looking ahead to a rosy future.

Gautam Thapar, a well-known entrepreneur in India, well-known for turning ailing companies into successful entities was entrusted with the task of turning around the fortunes of Indian professional golf. And as the President of the PGTI he took to his task with great passion. Thapar, incidentally, is also a board member of the Asian Tour.

After three years of Thapar’s leadership and business strategies, the Tour has grown by leaps and bounds. In the first 2006-07 season, the Tour offered players Rs. 4.60 crores (over RM300,000) in prize money with 10 events. The second season saw 24 tournaments, including four so-sanctioned events, with almost double the prize money. In this current 2008-09 season, with a calendar of 26 events, the PGTI is offering prize money of approximately 84 crores (over RM6mil). It’s a huge carrot for those aspiring to turn to the paid ranks.

Indeed, in just three years, Thapar has created a robust platform for professional golf in India. Their proudest moment was when they were invited to join the International Federation of PGA Tours this July during the British Open.

“It was very heartening for us to have accomplished this in three years. PGTI’s inclusion in the International Federation of PGA Tours will accelerate the growth of golf in our region and is testimony to PGTI’s success and the growth of Indian professional golf internationally,” said Sandhu.

Padamjit, the director of the Professional Golf Tour of India

Aside from the developments on Tour, there has also been a strong player growth in the last three years. More and more Indian golfers are beginning to feature strongly in Asian Tour events. Aside from the household names like Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, Arjun Atwal and Shiv Kapur, players on the Asian Tour now have to contend with the new breed of budding stars from India such as Gaganjeet Bhullar, the current leader of the PGTI Order of Merit, C. Muniyappa, the winner of the Hero Honda Indian Open, Anirban Lahiri, and the 22-year-old Himmat Rai, who led going into the third and final rounds of the Iskandar Johor Open.

The next three years are crucial for the PGTI, says Sandhu. Having built a solid foundation, they are now looking into increasing the number of tournaments to 28 and hopefully with a US$5mil co-sanctioned tournament, whose details are still to be disclosed.

By 2011, they hope to have six co-sanctioned events; they had only two co-sanctioned tournaments on the Asian Tour this season – the Indian and SAIL Opens.

With a lucrative local Tour, many youngsters are beginning to view golf as a viable career option. In a cricket-mad country, golf is starting to make inroads. Of course, the game’s recent re-induction into the Olympics is another driving force behind this sudden interest in the sport in India.

Driving ranges, according to Sandhu are full with youngsters from ages five to 15, keen on the sport. Sandhu revealed that they are also looking to start a feeder Tour to cater to professionals ranked below the top-60.

The Tour, says Sandhu is not just about financial gains, it is also about improving their lives of the professionals. The PGTI is in the midst of looking for a manager to look after the interests of the professionals who come from the lower income bracket especially, the caddies who turn pro.

With golf still being an elite sport in India, many of the professionals are from well-heeled families but with the Tour offering lucrative gains, many caddies see it as an opportunity to improve their own financial standing.

With the Tour riding high, it is not surprising that Rolex recently came on board as the official timekeeper of the Tour. The five-year sponsorship includes supporting the development of the Tour via sponsorship of programmes and events, hosting the PGTI Annual Awards, and the Order of Merit winner will receive a Rolex watch.

“Aircel, relatively new in the mobile communications arena, is the umbrella sponsor of the Tour. We want to form strategic partnerships with the right sponsors. TaylorMade was a perfect fit for us. Sport 18, a sport channel in the country is another partner of the Tour. We give the tour the required publicity,” said Sandhu.

After listening to Sandhu and watching a confident C.Muniyappa sink his winning putt and then speaking confidently about winning in Asia, Europe and the US, I couldn’t help but think about our professionals and their lamentable situation here. It’s just so sad.

I returned to Malaysia in time to read a report on the forum that the Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek held with local professionals and discussions of their need for a capable person to run the show here. What we need is someone with good ideas and strategies to turn things around. Someone with a passion for the game and its growth; but I wonder if there is anyone like that out there.

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