Team Golf League to kick off on Sept 4

Team Golf League (TGL) -- the amateur golf competition into its fourth year -- is bigger and better than its previous three avatars.

The fourth TGL will be played across 11 cities comprising of 2400 golfers -- an increase of 750 golfers from 2012. A team event, each 'gang' will have 10 golfers for a total of 240 gangs.

The tournament is not open to the top 20 amateurs of the country to ensure a level playing field and one needs to be at least 25 years of age to be eligible to participate. TGL will be played in two formats – strokeplay and matchplay.

The event begins with the Bangalore leg, the only place where two teams will move to the national finals, at the Eagleton Golf Resort from September 4 - 6.

The winners from the 11 cities will meet at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) for the national finals, scheduled to be held on December 12 and 13.

Rathan Kumar, Managing Director of Touche Golf, while announcing the latest edition of TGL at a city hotel here on Saturday, also spoke about the ambitious roadmap of TGL.

"When we first did this competition in 2010, we only stuck to Bangalore. But loooking at the response we made it pan India in 2011. Since then the competition has grown leaps and bounds.

"We have already held international amateur competitions outside India and we hope to have a Ryder Cup-style event featuring the 16 best Indian golfers vs the 16 best Asian golfers sometime in the city in February 2015," said Kumar.

Kumar also spoke about the shared vision of Touche Golf.

“Golf is not only an expensive sport to play but also not accessible for many. What we have tried to do is offer the equipments at affordable rates and also open schools where you don’t have to wait for years before getting the opportunity to learn the sport.”