By Rahul Banerji
The recent crowing of Natalie Srinivasan and Sahith Theegala as the top American collegiate golfers of the year underlined both a happy and a sad fact for Indian golf.
Firstly, it established that it is not geography or genetics, but facilities and opportunities that determine the career path of young golfers.
And secondly, the country of their origin is very far away from offering its young players such platforms to achieve their potential.
This point was driven home with some poignancy earlier this week when the PGA Tour launched a programme designed to reward collegiate golfers with access to events it manages across the United States, Canada, Latin America and China.
While Srinivasan was named winner of the Annika Award for best female college golfer of the season, Theegala received the Fred Haskins award for the best male university golfer of the season.
Ben Crenshaw, Jay Haas, Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas are past recipients of the Haskins Award which has been in existence since 1971.
The Annika Award, named for Swedish legend Annika Sorenstam, was instituted more recently.
Both Srinivasan and Theegala are children of immigrant parents whose roots lie in India.
General decline
The last couple of decades in particular has seen a decline in junior-level tournaments and while sporadic events like the Khelo India initiative do exist, they cannot replace an institutionalised system of identifying and nurturing talent.
The Rohington Baria Trophy for inter-university cricket tournament that once threw up players who went on to don India colours with distinction exists but its present avatar is a pale shadow of the event it once was.
Such is also the case with a host of other sports.
And when it comes to golf, the less said the better.
A recent chat with coach Romit Bose was revealing, even if the context was a little different. He has been nurturing junior talent for a fair length of time now and has a good understanding of why a regular pipeline to reward and progress careers in the sport has not taken off in India.
In summary, these are some of the points that came up, pretty much as Romit laid them out:
- Requirement of teaching staff a primary factor for scaling up business of in-school golf education;
- Infrastructure costs for artificial greens/hitting bays.golf equipment for teaching on the higher side;
- Monthly fee recovery to sustain staff members for 12 months is difficult with school exams/holidays and fee limits implemented by schools;
- College golf related are to athletics scholarships in the US, a model that is does not happen in India or anywhere outside America.
Varsity path
The reason this post came about is this: Three days ago, the PGA Tour launched its PGA Tour University programme that will help varsity golfers get exposure to varying levels of its tournaments, “while upholding the principles and virtues of collegiate athletics”.
In a statement, the tour said it hoped to “elevate the path to the PGA TOUR through the Korn Ferry Tour, Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica and PGA Tour Series – China. PGA TOUR University” for elite collegiate players with varying levels of playing access.
Players eligible for the PGA Tour University Ranking List will be NCAA Division I golfers who complete a minimum of four years in college.
“With the level of immediate success from the top collegiate players in the last decade, our team has done extensive research over time and developed a plan to provide a pathway for those players as they begin their journeys into the professional ranks,” said Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
“By focusing our efforts on players who have completed a minimum of four years, PGA Tour University will not deter from the college game while ensuring its graduates benefit from their maturity and experience.”
Clear path
The tour said the top 15 finishers from the final ranking list at the conclusion of the collegiate spring season will be awarded exempt status to the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour (Canada) and PGA Tour China Series based on their respective finish.
The top five finishers will receive Korn Ferry Tour membership and will be exempt into all open, full-field events till the conclusion of the Korn Ferry Tour regular season.
The top five finishers will also be exempt into the Final Stage of that year’s Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament.
Finishers 6 to 15 will secure membership on one of the International Tours for the current season and a spot in the Second Stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament (if necessary).
At that point, these players will have their choice of which International Tour their exempt status applies to.
In partnership
The PGA Tour will partner with the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), which is administered by The R&A and the USGA, to create the university ranking list.
The WAGR system ranks the top amateurs on the basis of their average performance in counting events on a rolling cycle over the previous 104 weeks.
The list will be filtered to include those players and results meeting the PGA Tour university eligibility criteria.
The first list will be unveiled this summer leading into the start of the 2020-21 Division I season, and will be updated each week during the season.
Such opportunities remain a distant dream for Indian aspirants, and for now at least, they need to cross the seven seas to knock on those doors.
Also read: Srinivasan, Theegala emerge top US collegiate golfers
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