Sept 2, 2013. In what would be a blow to the professional golf tour in India, Avantha Masters (1.8 mn Euros) and Kensville Challenge (200,000 Euros) events will not be held starting 2014. In an interaction with www.golfingindian.com, Padamjit Sandhi who heads the Professional Golfers Tour of India confirmed these events were off fro the calendar with immediate effect.
Gautam Thapar supported Avantha Masters plans to explore other formats with the European Tour in a bid to get a stronger presence on the global golf calendar and draw biggest talent. Gujarat based Kensville Golf Course which has been hosting the Challenge Tour event since 2011 had a three year contract which was not renewed earlier this year as the company wants to explore a full tour event in the future.
Golf Digest reports an excerpt from an interview with Chief Operations Officer of European Tour, Keith Waters.
“The European Tour was committed to staging the Avantha Masters under the tri-party agreement with the Asian Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), but the decision was taken by the tournament sponsors not to extend the existing agreement-hence the reason why the event will not feature in The Race to Dubai next year. We were very happy with the success of the Avantha Masters and hope to stage another European Tour event in India in the future.”
In addition Jeev Milkha Singh confirmed to www.golfingindian.com that Shubhkamna Champion of Champions would also not be held this year due to date troubles with the players. Jeev himself is out on a hectic tournament schedule that finishes only in December.
The question is how adversely can these impact the view on Indian golf? India has been a tremendous market for the game over the last decade as golf became the sport of preference second only to cricket and saw solid growth. At a junction when the game is preparing to enter the Olympics and emerging markets are becoming critical hubs for talent, tournaments and money, is this retrograde for professional golf?
For young guns like Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri, Himmat Rai, Abhijit Singh Chadha these events on Indian soil had become marquee for possible wins as they were familiar with the course. Worse the set back will be harder for the upcoming crop who regularly play on the PGTI season and get to rub shoulders with global names during such tournaments.
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