[Reader-list] the political sociology of Indian golf

[Mario Rodrigues]

The Political Sociology of Golf in South Asia (3)

In my previous posting, I had highlighted the factors
that have been driving the golf-course explosion in
India. This time I will explore aspects connected with
the human element to benefit whom these developments
have taken place – the players.

If the game’s aficionados are to be believed, golf is
the fastest growing sport in India. Jeev Milkha Singh,
one of India’s leading pro golfers, once said that
golf will be bigger than cricket in ten years, a
prediction, whatever its merit, that is similarly
being echoed by other prominent golf practitioners.

Today, just about 1-3 lakh players (out of a
population of 1 billion plus) play golf across the
210-odd courses nationwide, a figure that is
reportedly increasing rapidly. The golf-playing
community can be divided into three categories: 1) the
traditional club golfer who plays for the love of the
sport thanks to his existing club membership; 2) the
burgeoning club of power/corporate golfers, many of
whom have taken up the game for business reasons,
status or as a lifestyle option; 3) the also
increasing group of amateur and professional golfers
who want to make a career of golf.

The proliferation of golfers has skyrocketed due to
the golf boom, which was fuelled by the pumping of
corporate largesse into the sport in the late 1990s.
Today, even junior golf, which could not attract
sponsors in the past, can command a price. The tribe
of juniors has also increased substantially. In the
old days, both amateurs and pros used to play together
in Open tournaments. “Now, the field has increased to
double and there are two separate tours for amateurs
and pros run by two separate bodies,” points out
Simranjeet Singh, a veteran Delhi-based amateur
golfer.

In the North (Delhi & Chandigarh) and East (Kolkata),
a rush of juniors, backed by equally ambitious
parents, have swarmed golf courses. In Kolkata, even a
six-year-old is undergoing specialised coaching. Many
amateurs turn pro as soon as possible. “Golf has
become a career option as there is good money in the
game today,” states Satbinder Singh, convenor, Royal
Calcutta Golf Course, Kolkata. Indeed, a leading
English national daily has unintendedly endorsed this
claim by carrying an article to this effect a few
months ago in its ‘Careers’ supplement.

The Indian Professional Golfers Association-conducted
ongoing Tour for Indian pros sponsored currently by
the Amby Valley (the Lonavla-based ‘lifestyle project’
of the Sahara group) offers prize money worth Rs 3.05
crores. About 150-plus golfers take part in this tour.
While a top-ranked golfer can make over Rs 1 million a
year in prize money alone, even an average pro can
rake in around Rs 1 lakh per month through prize
money, tuitions, endorsements and so on.

Indian youngsters are inspired by the success of Tiger
Woods – and latterly of Vijay Singh, the Fijian of
Indian origin who temporarily displaced the Afro-Asian
American as the world’s No 1 golfer. “When Tiger took
up golf he was very young. And when he won tournaments
and made a lot of money a lot of youngsters took up
golf here. Vijay Singh’s successes too fired up our
youth,” contends Satbinder Singh. Just for the record,
Vijay Singh pocketed over $ 7.6 million when he topped
the US PGA Tour, a million more than Tiger Woods.

Golf is seen as a game where Indians can succeed at
the topmost level as it is not overtly physical. This
is borne out by the successes of the ‘Three Musketeers
of Indian Golf” – Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa
and Arjun Atwal on the international stage. Atwal and
Randhawa have topped the Asian PGA Tour rankings in
the past, the former becoming the first Indian to
qualify for the US PGA Tour, the world’s premier
golfing arena. Jeev and Randhawa have been playing on
the European and Japanese Tours, the next biggest
platforms in world golf. And several more Indians are
not only competing on the Asian PGA Tour but even
winning events there. 

And raking in the money as well. For example, Randhawa
pocketed a winner’s cheque of $ 1.75 lakhs when he won
the Suntory Open in Japan in 2003. In 2003, Atwal
earned $ 2.84 lakhs on the Asian Tour apart from 3.35
lakh pounds on the European Tour. Golf reporting in
the media highlights this aspect by repeatedly
focussing on the aggregate prize money earnings of
leading pro golfers for the season.

To conclude: a point about the Pro Tour business.
Geographical boundaries seem to be of no consequence
as the world’s top golfers go about in search of
‘greener’ pastures and the Tour goes in search of new
markets. Indians, Japanese and other Asians are
playing on the US and European Tours, while Westerners
are playing on the Asian circuit. The Indian Tour too
thinks nothing of meandering into Nepal, Bangladesh
and now Sri Lanka. The European Tour, on its part,
will travel to Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, the UAE, Qatar, Australia and New Zealand
this season. 

Golf, like some other disciplines, now represents the
unrestricted flow of capital and elite performers
across the globe, that has made nationalities and
nations irrelevant!



		
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