Has the Indian Golf Union pushed itself into irrelevance?

By Rahul Banerji

“Head down, eyes on the ball,” are words that have rung in the ears of every golfer in all the years the sport has been played around the world.

It’s a simple dictum – and one that works – which is why it is repeated ad nauseam.

Which is also why it is hard to understand how the sport’s guiding hand in the country, the Indian Golf Union (IGU), has taken its eyes off the ball so completely that it is no longer in play.

As things stand, the IGU is marginalised when it should be central to the sport. Exasperated by repeated delays in holding its elections, the Sports Ministry finally derecognised the apex body on June 30 this year and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) stepped in with a Golf Governance Committee (GGC) till fresh elections are held.

Even as I write this, the IGU website is completely silent on the matter, and associated developments.

Odd company

For differing reasons, the IGU thus joins the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) and the Archery Association of India (AAI) as a body sidelined from administering its declared sport.

The IGU’s current status also draws parallels with what is happening in India’s cricket administration, where the national body for the sport no longer has its hand on the tiller, and yet the game goes on undisturbed.

A Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has run cricket for the last couple of years as constituent units of the cricket control board have been unable to come together and make required changes to its constitution and rules of business.

At this point, there is nothing to suggest the IGU will not go down that same path as well with the GGC.

Consider this. Even with the IGU effectively in limbo, golf in India continues undisturbed. Teams to international events travel under the Union’s banner thanks to its status as a national sports federation (NSF) with funding from the Sports Authority of India.

Selection in golf, unlike in cricket or some other disciplines, is largely on the basis of recorded scores and not subjective criteria.

Life goes on

Thus, there has been no interruption in Indian amateur golfers gaining international exposure. The women’s team played the Queen Sirikit Cup in Thailand, Indian juniors have recently appeared at the Singapore and Malaysian championships.

A six-round selection tournament for the Nomura Cup (the Asia Pacific amateur golf team championship, to be played in Hong Kong this November) concluded at the Noida Golf Course on Sunday, August 11.

National-level tournaments continue as per the calendar including most recently, the All-India Seniors and Mid-Amateur Golf Championship 2019 in Bangalore two weeks ago.

There has been some talk of India’s golf team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games being affected. This is scare-mongering at best. Entries to the Summer Games are decided on the basis of a player’s Official Golf World Ranking (OGWR) and only those who come in under the qualifying mark will travel to Japan. The IGU has nothing to do with it.

How did it all come to this?

Clinging to office

Caught up in a raft of cases, four of which are still in the courts, the IGU since September last year used the legal route to avoid elections, seeking a series of three-month interim orders to hang on to its status as a functional NSF.

As per the National Sports Code, NSFs must conduct elections every four years, which the IGU managed to put off – till the government and the IOA ran out of patience.

Things had begun to move earlier, though. With the IGU unable or unwilling to meet its obligations as per the National Sports Code, the IOA brass met an International Golf Federation official in May to chart out a route so that Indian golf would not have its international prospects hampered.

And once the government had finally withdrawn recognition to the IGU, the IOA swung into action, appointing the five-member GGC “to reform governance, liaise with all stakeholders, ensure compliance of norms and help Indian Golf Union conduct elections.”

Job cut out

The committee, headed by Women’s Golf Association of India president Kavita Singh, will oversee all aspects of participation of players and officials in the Tokyo Olympics qualifier competitions/events in the interim period.

Others on the committee are Mukesh Kumar, Onkar Singh, Vir Srivastava and a nominee of the International Golf Federation.

However, as pointed out earlier, Olympic entries will purely be on the basis of World Rankings and a country’s quota. As such, the GGC has no direct role other than to see Indian officials are not denied an opportunity to stand duty at the Summer Games.

Also, other than Ms Singh and the IGF nominee, none of the three other GGC members have had much of a role to play in Indian golf.

If the GCC follows the BCCI’s CoA paradigm of pro-activity, there is cause for hope. If it is content to hold occasional meetings and wait for things to happen, Indian golf could well be see a long holdup till its next tee-shot.

Also read: Simarjeet leads NGC sweep of IGU all-India mid, senior titles