Making golf accessible is IGTE day one keynote; and some offs too

By Rahul Banerji

Former professional golfer and national coach Amandeep Johl had a telling message on the opening day of the 8th edition of the India Golf & Turf Expo in New Delhi on Friday.

“We need to change the way golf is perceived in India,” Johl said during the ‘golf range panel discussion’. “The sport comes across as too formal here. We spend more time on exclusion rather than on inclusion.

“The reason cricket has become such an Indian sport is because it is played in the streets and by-lanes across the country. Golf needs an image makeover. It needs to become more accessible,” Johl, who now runs two driving ranges in and around Delhi, added.

Across the discussions, two very different problems came up. Of too many golfers in some centres, and of too few in others. While clubs and courses in traditional centres of the sport have a problem of plenty, those in newly-developed areas just don’t have enough players coming in to use their facilities.

Kensville is one of the better new courses that have sprung up in Gujarat, but as Munish Patell pointed out, with as many as nine courses in and around Ahmedabad, the city had a total pool of around 750 golfers.

Innovations

“How can we sustain a course with such numbers? We have had to go down the marriage market route. Or rope in big names that headline our property,” he recalled.

“We hosted an European Challenger Tour event some years ago and brought in Amitabh Bachchan for the Pro-Am, Four thousand, five hundred people turned up! Had it not been for him, there’s no way that many people would have driven some 40 kilometres out of the city on a hot day to watch golf. We have had to innovate to survire.”

Which was the point of the Expo in the first place, a forum to exchange ideas, issues and problems in what is in essence, a niche sport in India.

Discount mania

After the post on Thursday on IGTE, 95 percent of subscribers and readers responded with one basic query: What about discounts on gear and stuff?

So, here goes. Callaway are the only company to have a stall of their own and have reasonable offs on clubs, apparel and other accessories. They have the new Epic Flash driver and the Apex iron series on no discount and older clubs like the XR series at varying levels of price cuts.

Zaverichand Sports have Titelist (30% off on older models), TaylorMade and selected brands on display with Nike footwear going at a 70 per cent off and half price on clubs and other gear.

Personally the stall I found most interesting was of a relatively new ball-maker, Plus 91, who are retailing their range balls at Rs 40 a pop, and two match balls. A dozen of the white glazed variety is on offer at Rs 720 and the coloured matte finish balls at Rs 840.

The way forward

Earlier in the day, the IGTE opening saw speakers including D. Venkatesan, deputy director general of the Union tourism ministry, Peter Walton, president and CEO of the  International Association of Golf Tour Operators; Mike Orloff, managing director of Golf Industry Central and Arjun Chowdhri, chief innovation officer of the PGA of America take the dias.

The Indian Golf Union’s honorary treasurer and chairman of the Technical Rules & Amateur Status Committee, spoke on a seven year programme concentrating on schools and communities, clubs, state golf partnerships, coaching and operations with emphasis on talent development.

Saturday is the second and last day of the Expo.

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