A brief history of Indian golf

By Chandrani Datta   The story of India’s tryst with golf started way back in 1829. Outside the geographical boundaries of Great Britain, the first golf club, Royal …

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Cochin Masters

By Chandrani Datta

 

The story of India’s tryst with golf started way back in 1829. Outside the geographical boundaries of Great Britain, the first golf club, Royal Calcutta Golf Club(RCGC) had been established in Calcutta under British rule. After the first Club, there were a series of golf clubs that were established all across India. With the oldest club being established in Calcutta, clubs in Bombay and Bangalore soon followed. The Royal Bombay Club was established next in 1842 followed by the Royal Bangalore Club and The Shillong Club in 1876 and 1886 respectively.

 

India premiered in  national level golf championship in 1892. This was an occasion when the Royal Calcutta Golf Club played the host to the all new Amateur Golf championship. In the history of golf, this tournament turned out to be the second oldest tournament in the world after the famous British Open. Until the 1950s, all the golf clubs worked under the prestigious affiliation of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.

 

The December of 1955 saw another major transition in the history of golf in India. This year a group of skilled golf players in the country constituted the Indian Golf Union (IGU). This organisation became the integral body solely responsible for the management and promotion of the sport in the country. Over the years, under the parentage of the world amateur Golf Council, the IGU has taken several steps to improve the standard of the sport in the country.

 

The year 1958, also became a landmark year in the history of golf in India. From this year onwards, the tournament started to be conducted alternately in the three different cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi. Then there was the inauguration of the Indian Open Tournaments in 1964 and since then there was no looking back for the sport. This tournament is now held annually and has contributed significantly to the development of golf in India.

 

Over the last decade golf has grown as a sport. Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal, Ali Sher have been legendary names to reckon with and now the young Anirban Lahiri and Rashid Khan are bringing golf to the youth. Female golf players like Sharmila Nicollet and Vani Kapoor have also been performing commendably .People from different fields have taken to this sport. The class barriers have also broken along with the stereotype of associating this sport with an elitist crowd of players. It is indeed interesting to see this game being finally getting the popularity that it has been deprived of in a nation that has been primarily obsessed with cricket.

 

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