Not a rich man's game: Will it take a Tiger to give golf a chance in India

The worldwide boom in golf is fuelled by the 'Tiger' phenomenon and the success of the Masters and The (British) Open

Compared to the pre-Tiger Woods era when professional golfers, relatively speaking, played for pennies, today they play for millions of dollars. Past great champions bemoan the fact that this big money effect was not always so. When Jack Nicklaus, in 1986, won his record sixth Green Jacket at the Masters, his prize money was $144,000 out of a total purse of $ 785,000; twenty years later in 2006, Tiger Woods won $1.26 million out of a purse of $7 million ; in 2019, the winner will receive $1.9 million out of a purse of $11 million; the Players championship (trying desperately to become the fifth major but not succeeding) has gone beyond the Masters purse, as has the US Open. Aside from prize monies, corporate sponsorships increase the income/wealth of the top players into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Thus, Tiger Woods (leader of the pack) is reportedly worth $750 million and, in 2018, when he won only $1.3 million in prize money his sponsorship contracts yielded him in excess of $40 million despite some sponsors bowing out owing to controversies over his personal life.  

It is the adoring public and TV viewership that pays for all this. Hundreds of millions who do not even play golf certainly do know who Tiger Woods is and when he plays, win or not win, he is the news and the television rating points (TRPs) multiply several fold. Moneywise, he is the change agent.

Arising out of the foregoing there is an unimagined growth in the whole "business" of golf, which includes golf courses and designs thereof, equipment in all its many variations, caddies and coaches, clothing and footwear and life style infrastructure, including residential and commercial establishments, gardeners/horticulturalists/environmentalists, huge golf tourism which supports the transportation and hospitality industry, and the creation of massive employment. The list of benefits is endless.  

All of the above does not happen automatically; it requires responsible agencies to channel the vast energies unleashed by this phenomenon, into growth. Arguably, one of the most important agencies is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (R&A) which is of course the original temple of golf. Together with its counterpart the US Golf Association, the rules and regulations that govern this sport are written, reviewed, revised and transmitted through out the golf playing world. The R&A, the Augusta National Club and the US PGA respectively stage The Open (British Open), the Masters Tournament, and all the other tournaments in North America and have effectively exploited the willing TV, Print, Digital Media and Sponsors to bring this game to the living rooms of billions of viewers around the world. Of the hundreds of millions of dollars so generated, a part of which of course goes to players, the resultant residual funds are also used for continuous improvement of their course conditions, etc. and also for the expansion of the game worldwide.  

Golf has excited millions of golfers in the East, in Latin America, West Asia, and several other areas, and is now growing at a healthy rate in virtually every country. Promoting the development of golf in those countries, where one never expected golf to boom and bloom are these aforementioned great change agents which of course must include Tiger. Many millions are spent in development of regional golf tours, joint sanction events and particular attention is paid to taking this game to children and women in every country and spread the message of wholesomeness of this sport which can be played for as long as one is alive. 

In India, several individuals, corporates and golf clubs have taken on the role to nurse golf development (notably Hero Motor Corp, Usha and Mawana, Delhi Golf Club, DLF Golf Club, Golf Foundation, DGS, PGTI and many others), but India has still not reaped the massive harvest that other developing countries have. Governments have to take a hand in proactively promoting this Olympic sport if it is to take root the way it has in China, Thailand, Japan etc.  Of course, prosperity of the people of each country, and the politics thereof, has much to do with it, so one can only dream that India’s time will also come.  

There are several growth inhibitors in India. The foremost are the oft held view that this is a rich person’s game, that golf courses take up too much land which could be used more usefully for agriculture, and that golf courses are environmentally unsound. Gary Player, one of the living legends of golf,  avers that the application of modern technology has shown the way to use far less water, pesticides and fertilisers than heretofore (far less than in agriculture) and that this sport can be taken to small towns and even villages in a creative way which can eliminate the idea that this game is a “rich man’s” sport.  We have just got to give it a chance. 

Despite these attitudes several great courses have come up. There is an important professional tour building.  There are some domestic and international sponsors, most notably Hero Motor Corp with the visionary Pawan Munjal at the helm who has linked up with Tiger Woods.  

A number of private ranges and coaches have emerged, but this is nothing compared to what could be with just a bit more of opening up and encouragement by the Government.  Huge employment increase, huge golf tourism with its attendant benefits, manufacturing facilities, rapid growth in this life style and the generation of new talent surfacing and the building of a steady pipeline of strong players for the national and international stage. 

The Delhi Golf Club (DGC) has taken a stride by recruiting Gary Player, a great golf course designer to redesign the green complexes of their iconic, forested, Lodhi Course. The makeover will be suitable for training and developing talented players and also serve as a very high-level international championship golf arena.  This facility is expected to be fully ready by the end of December 2019.  

Tiger’s popularity has allowed major changes for developing nations to take a quantum leap to get the full benefits as described above.  Hopefully Pawan Munjal will consider bringing Tiger to the DGC to launch India into becoming a truly great golfing nation.  

The DGC has had thoughts about building a major golf tournament, owned by the DGC which, with patience and diligence, could become hugely financially successful and become the fulcrum of significantly expanding and internationalising of this sport in India.  Let us hope that this will happen sooner rather than later.

Next: The Elegance and dynamism of the Masters and the R&A