SOME DREAMS DO COME TRUE

While the Tata-sponsored road race was being organised in the city on Sunday, it felt like some of the tired runners who were left behind may have found their way into the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, swelling an already huge gallery watching the final day’s proceedings of the season-ending McLeod Russel Tour Championship. It was reminiscent of the good old days when the Indian Open used to be held here and extra number of marshals were required to control the large crowd. 

They certainly didn’t go back disappointed as quickly improving and truly a Royal product Shankar Das scripted a fairy-tale victory to take home the biggest pay cheque of his career and outplay the likes of RCGC’s most famous son Arjun Atwal, established players on bigger Tours like Gagangjeet Bhullar, Rahil Gangjee, SSP Chowrasia and Himmat Rai amongst others.

The 31-year-old, who had lost his father at age 13, realised the dream of his mother (who struggled to make ends meet but still bought a golf club for her son), made golfing headlines for being crowned the champion of the richest domestic event on the PGTI Tour, and ended up as the No.1 player for the 2014 Rolex award. Beginning his career as a ball boy to emerging as the Player of the Year 2014 is truly overwhelming and brings to mind the old adage “Some dreams do come true”.

HIGH GOLFING STANDARDS 

The McLeod Russel Tour Championship brought out the best amongst the professionals who showed that the PGTI Tour has great depth and talent. The winner having shot 16-under for four days on a challenging track such as the RCGC speaks volumes of the immense talent.

While Das started the final round with the tag of the tournament leader and a two-stroke advantage, it was cut to a solitary stroke by the 14th. Chasing him were the established multi-event-winner Gagangeet Bhullar and another prodigious talent, Abhinav Lohan.However, with successful birdies on the 15th and 16th, Das sealed the fate of the event in his favour.

As many as 25 players finished with a par or better scores.

YOUTH BEATS EXPERIENCE

The battle of Youth versus Experience is swinging the former’s way with the likes of Gaganjeet Bhullar (26), Abhinav Lohan (25), Chikkarangappa (21), Shubhankar Sharma (18), Khalin Joshi (22), Rashid Khan (23)... hogging the limelight more often than not. Also these youngsters are using their success to climb to bigger platforms such as the Asian Tour and slowly making a mark. 

A SPECIAL DATE 

Kudos is due to the quartet of Gaganjeet Bhullar, SSP Chowrasia, Rahil Gangjee and Arjun Atwal for keeping a date with the year-ending tournament despite their busy schedule on the more lucrative Tours across Asia and Europe. All of them do not have a PGTI Tour card owing to their international commitments, but they were given a sponsor’s invite. It was heartening to see Atwal, especially, who flew directly from Dubai after his amazing victory on the Asian Tour and shrugged off his weariness to conduct a clinic for the juniors and have a motivational chat with many budding golfers on the eve of the tournament.

 

A ROYAL TREAT

If one thought that the Royal Calcutta Golf Club is only famous as being the second oldest golf club outside of the British Isles and has been accorded the status of Mecca of Indian Golf, a rethink is needed. The Christmas and New Year celebrations are held in full fervour which bring out the unique traits of Calcutta. The festive look and mouth-watering cuisine which the Royal dished out complemented the titillating action on the course. Be it the various kinds of teas from the gardens of the chief sponsors or the Chicken Cutlets or the Mutton Crumb Chops from the club’s kitchen satiated the culinary pangs of golfers and non-golfers alike.

I AM FOR PRO-AM

The Pro-Am of the coveted event is the most-looked-forward-to event amongst the amateurs of the entire eastern region with some of them travelling from as far as Pune, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. It is easy to win a lottery or get a ticket for elections but to get a spot in the Pro-Am of the coveted event is a far cry as each one of the 400-odd golfers in the city aspires to be a part of the Pro-Am. A total of 94 teams (282 amateurs) played the Pro-Am of the current edition.

BUSINESS OF GOLF

Golf sponsorship in India is hard to come by when compared to the lucrative USPGA Tour that boasts of a prize money worth more than USD 250 million in a year. When a small comparison to the other lucrative Tours outside of India is made, Shankar Das who won the Order of Merit this season made a little over Rs 54 lakh (Rs 5,432,067) while Danny Willett who won the Race to Dubai European Tour Order of Merit earned almost Rs 7.2 crore! The 10th-placed golfer on the Order of Merit (please see table), K. Prabagaran, was richer by Rs 23.4 lakh while 50th ranked Naman Dawar earned Rs 4.70 lakh. The growth in prize money on the Indian Tour has not been as satisfactory as projected since the Tour’s inception in 2006 where the 50th player earned close to Rs 3 lakh on the erstwhile PGAI Tour. 

Believe me, having played at the top level of golf, both amateur and professional, I realised that it is not easy to sustain oneself. The expenses range from travel, entry fee, caddie fee, boarding, accommodation and equipment which can be easily around Rs 30,000 per week. I would reckon that only the top 20 players can afford to solely depend on the Tour for their livelihood.

Geographically, the East Zone has contributed the most in terms of prize money with a total of Rs 2.95 crore comprising four events with McLeod Russel alone contributing Rs 1.5 crore followed by North Zone at Rs 2.80 crore (6 events). The events in the West and South Zone have contributed Rs 1.5 crore apiece.

However, the need of the hour is a collective effort from the organisers as well as the sponsors — McLeod Russel, with gifts by L’Occitane and Celeste chocolates — to take the Tour to a different level which can boast of offering decent prize money to the top-60 professional who then can solely depend on the Tour and concentrate on their game rather than finding other ways and means to sustain themselves. 

 

 

 

Brandon de Souza
a former national golf coach andIndia international, is now chairman of BDMS,a sports management company