Golf business gets bigger

SPORTS: Global tournaments, big prize money, an all-golf channel, 40 new courses — it’s all happening in India.

India has already hosted two coveted international golf tournaments — the $2.5 million European Tour Indian Masters and the $2.5 million Johnnie Walker Classic – this year. More are slated to take place this year. So, by the time curtains come down on 2008, top golfers from across the world will have earned up to Rs 80 crore in prize money, up sharply from Rs 38 crore last year.

Elsewhere in the country, Ten Sports is adding final touches to its soon-to-be-launched dedicated channel called Ten Golf. Rival ESPN-Star Sports has increased golf coverage by 100 per cent in the last year-and-a-half. Two leading publishing houses — the India Today group and Media Transasia — have come out with golf magazines which, they claim, are doing brisk sales.

Companies are falling over each other to sponsor golf tournaments. Two-wheeler market leader Hero Honda, Gautam Thapar’s Avantha Group, real estate developers DLF and Emaar-MGF, liquor major UB and ICICI Bank have all joined the bandwagon. Others are also ready to loosen purse strings.

Golf and the business around the sport has taken off. It is still small as compared to cricket (at Rs 20-25 crore per annum, golf advertising in print and electronic media is about two per cent of what is spent on cricket), but the numbers are catching on.

Experts reckon there are about 200,000 active golfers in India and some 200 golf courses. Only two of these are public courses —others are all private and exclusive clubs. This explains the rising popularity of golf amongst the affluent: The exclusivity associated with the sport.

As income levels rise, people want to be associated with a sport that is more lifestyle oriented than cricket. Golf offers excellent networking opportunities and is a good exercise too — you burn 3,600 calories if you do all the 18 holes and carry your golf bag.

“Golf provides an international connect and hence brands that have global aspirations are warming up to the sport,” says Rishi Narain of Rishi Narain Golf Management.

Some others are driven by their golfer promoters or CEOs. Pawan Kant Munjal of Hero Honda and Gautam Thapar are both enthusiastic golfers. Says Professional Golf Tour of India Tour Commissioner Ajai Gupta: “With the number of events increasing, more multinational corporations now see golf tournaments as a platform to get maximum brand appreciation.”

“With developers taking to the idea of golf as a way of advertising their property, there are almost 40 new courses under construction,” Gupta adds. DLF and Unitech are learnt to be building a score of courses. For long the preserve of bureaucrats and army officers, this will make golf the favourite pastime of young achievers who find the doors to golf clubs closed.

The recent good performance of Indian golfers like Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa in the international circuit too has fuelled popular interest. This has meant good business for the sports broadcasters. “Golf gets affluent viewership. These viewers are generally in the higher income group and watch golf by appointment, which serves well the requirements of the advertisers too,” a senior executive from a Gurgaon-based media planning agency says.

Cricket may one day get a rich cousin.