Men’s golf in India stuck in the rough

Bengaluru: In about a month’s time, the hallowed Delhi Golf Club will be buzzing with activity. The majestic course, which has played host to multiple Indian Open championships and frequented by who is who of the country — from professional golfers to amateurs, from bureaucrats to socialites, from politicians to businessmen — will be staging the DP World India Championship from October 16-19. 

Among the confirmed participants for the $4 million event, probably the richest the country has ever had, are five-time Major winner and favourite Rory McIlroy, two-time runner-up at Majors, Tommy Fleetwood, as well as Ryder Cup stars Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry. Buzz is that tickets are already in good demand, and it’s fair to assume golfing fans in India will be loosening their purse strings just to catch a glimpse of McIlroy, who completed his career Slam at the Augusta Masters earlier this year. Fair enough, because how often does one get to see the Northern Irishman, a bonafide global superstar, in action in India?

So what about the Indians? Well, as of now, only Shubhankar Sharma, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour (European Tour), is a confirmed participant. The grapevine is that Sharma could be joined by a former Olympian who had migrated to the PGA Tour before joining LIV Golf and moving base to the Middle East now. More could be added in the coming days too. Do they have a chance? Very bleak, considering the wretched form the duo have been battling over the last few years. The 29-year-old Sharma, who shot to prominence with a brilliant maiden European win at the Jo’burg Open in December 2017, followed by an equally impressive triumph at the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur two months later, has struggled all season. In 23 tournaments, the unassuming golfer has missed the cut in a whopping 19 of them. That’s really poor for a player of his calibre.  

It’s not just Sharma who is going through a horrendous run, but the Indian men’s golf in totality has hit a rough with the future appearing not bright too. Yes, PGTI, the professional body with former India cricket captain and avid golfer Kapil Dev as its president, has increased the number of events and financial rewards. A new tour, the IGPL, has cropped up recently offering handsome returns, but the state of men’s golf, in terms of performance, is not healthy at all at the moment. The last time an Indian won internationally was way back in November 2023 when Gaganjeet Bhullar triumphed at the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta. The title drought for Indians is close to two years, but what’s worrisome more than the lack of wins is the missed cuts and finishes way down the leaderboard.

It’s completely mystifying because men’s golf in the country, right from the days of the legendary Jeev Milkha Singh, has always had someone flying the flag high. Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa around the millennium, then SSP Chawrasia the following decade, followed by Bhullar and Anirban Lahiri, the conveyor belt moved on smoothly without much hiccups. In fact, in 2018, a whopping five Indians triumphed on the Asian Tour, and that time it looked like the sport had really taken off to its predicted heights. Talent was overflowing with youngsters like Viraj Madappa, Khalin Joshi and Rashid Khan stepping on the pedal to complement seasoned performers like Lahiri, Chawrasia and Bhullar. Other youngsters like S Chikkarangappa, Ajeetesh Sandhu and Himmat Singh too were showing plenty of promise. Golf was indeed rocking! 

So what has led to this collective snag? It’s fine for a professional to go through his share of ups and downs — it’s a part of an athlete’s life — but why have all of them hit the rough at the same time?

“I have also been wondering and thinking about it for quite a while now,” Lahiri, a seven-time Asian Tour and two-time European Tour winner, told DHoS. “With golf, there comes a wave; you have a wave of winners or a wave of, you know, Indians who do well. And even in the past, if you go back historically, there was a phase where Jeev, Jyoti and Arjun were the dominant forces and Shiv (Kapur) as well. Then there was this lull in the middle where nobody really won.

“And I think after that came probably the next batch of guys who have won prolifically. Gagan has won the most on the Asian tour. I won a few times, Himmat won once, SSP won a handful of times on the European tour. And then I think there was another gap. We had a few wins coming from Chirag (Kumar), Rashid, Khalin and then Shubhankar had a good run. I’m just hoping this lull doesn’t stay very long.”

Reputed coach Tarun Sardesai, who runs an eponymous academy at the Zion Hills Golf Club in Kolar, blamed the lack of grassroots work and foresight from the administrators, especially Indian Golf Union. “There is a white elephant in the room that no one’s willing to address in this country, especially when it comes to golf. We have one person on the European tour, which is Shubhankar. We have Aditi on the LPGA. There is absolutely no developmental system in place. If you look at all the corporates today, hardly anyone is focusing on development. They’re focusing on corporate golf. There’s barely any focus on grassroots. Unless you develop and cultivate talent, how do you expect the sport to grow? Yes, there are plenty of professional and amateur tournaments, but what is the work done by the administrators or IGU at the grassroots to find the next generation? In my opinion, it’s next to nothing.”

Sardesai definitely has a point. One of the biggest challenges facing golf is accessibility. It’s mostly played by kids of parents who have memberships at clubs or children of Armed Forces’ officers.

Private clubs have sprung up, but playing and training there isn’t a middle-class family’s cup of tea. The lack of public courses, unlike the US or parts of Europe, is a massive deterrent for the common man. It’s largely only the privileged who take up the sport and with the numbers not that big, the sport has sort of stagnated. 

Who is going to snap this drought and kickstart another resurrection remains to be seen.