By Smriti Sinha, Columnist
Over the past half a decade, Indian golfers have consistently made big strides in getting their names noticed on leaderboards on tougher international terrains amid the biggest names in the sport. The latest from Royal Liverpool – Anirban Lahiri making the cut for a second appearance at The Open – is great news for the exposure and eyeballs that Indian golf will get when the major starts in 10 days.
For Lahiri, I’m sure, the news takes him back to memories of 2012, when he had qualified for The Open for the first time, hit a coveted hole-in-one in the third round and finished a strong tied 31st in his major debut. This time, Lahiri, the current Asian Tour order of merit leader, has made it to the player’s list for The Open through his international ranking – World No. 75 till last week. The invitation went to him and other high ranked non-exempt players. And his appearance at The Open comes right after Shiv Kapur’s high-quality performance at the U.S. Open – making it two majors in a row with Indian participation.
Kapur qualified for the U.S. Open in his sixth attempt but he made it worth the wait with a solid tied-23rd finish, sharing the leaderboard position with two-time major winner Rory McIlroy, member of the Ryder Cup winning team Francesco Mollinari and five spots ahead of Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell. That finish was the best ever by an Indian at the U.S. Open and second only to Jeev Milkha Singh’s tied 9th at the PGA Championship when compared to performances of Indian golfers at all majors.
Last year too, commentators scurried for more information on Kapur as he led the first round at The Open. But Kapur eventually finished tied 73rd. It’s arguable that these performances on the bigger tours and in majors are few and far in between and off late, nothing has made as big a splash for golf in India as Arjun Atwal’s PGA Tour win did in 2010. But for golfers from India, these are tough circumstances. At a time when India has very few co-sanctioned tournaments in the country, and none apart from the Asian Tour, players have little or no access to top fields or bigger prize purses, leaving them with little scope of getting a card on the European Tour, second only to the PGA circuit.
For financial reasons, the Avantha Masters and its $2.5 million prize money was taken off the Indian calendar this year and with it went away India’s only European Tour co-sanctioned event and the exposure that it brought to aspiring top-tier golfers from India. Case in point: S.S.P. Chowrasia was able to play on the European Tour for two years thanks to his victory at the co-sanctioned Indian Masters in New Delhi in 2008 – a tournament that brought Ernie Els and other multiple-time European Tour winners to India. And as luck would have it, he won the Avantha Masters to extend his access to European Tour – an opportunity no longer available to Indian golfers. Even the Kensville Challenge, a second-rung European Tour event that Kapur won last year and Gaganjeet Bhullar won in its inaugural year to earn playing rights on bigger tournaments in Europe, was pulled off from India. Bhullar has been keen on playing the Web.com to transition into the PGA Tour for some years now and Rahil Gangjee tried that route too but lack of bigger tournaments in India means more expenses to play abroad and fewer ranking points from tournaments at home.
In the past, Emaar-MGF, Johnny Walker ($2.5 million in 2008), and in recent years Avantha have brought big names and big prize money cheques to India but until that happens again and until there is more investment of time and money into training and public golf courses in the country, what these golfers are doing on the international stage is the biggest boost that the sport is going to get.
Winning the Indonesian Open this year, posting four other top-10 finishes and cracking the top-100 ranking, Lahiri has worked very hard to be in contention for the Claret Jug. Now the bigger challenge awaits: As the news of his exemption came in from R&A, he cut short his honeymoon in Madagascar to start preparing for the classic links course golf. But watching Kapur play at U.S. Open and now Lahiri tee off at The Open holds great value because this is the only way now for Indian golf to get noticed where it matters most.
Smriti is a New York City journalist covering sports & business; Social media strategist; Columbia Journalism grad; Former sports reporter, The Indian Express
