The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) CEO Amandeep Johl has said that talks are now ongoing for the forming of a golf league for professional golfers in the country. This development comes after the Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL), which is not affiliated with the PGTI, was announced earlier this year.
The PGTI held a press conference on Saturday to announce the prize money for the second half of the golf season in India, and onboarding new sponsors like Indian Oil and Amul to PGTI events. The premier golf body of India announced that there would be a minimum of 15 tournaments in the second half of the season from August to December with a total prize money of Rs 17 crores. This takes the total season’s prize money to Rs 33 crores and does not include the Indian Open and the DP World India Championships. It was also announced that the prize money for the current season had risen by Rs 8 crores from last season.
The crowning event for the PGTI will be the DP World India Championships, where newly-minted Masters winner Rory McIlroy is set to headline the field at the Delhi Golf Club. With a prize purse of $4 million, that event will be the richest ever golf event to be staged in India.
Johl also announced that India would host three NextGen events with prize money of Rs 20 lakh in Patna, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar.
The talks for a new league are ongoing as well, and PGTI CEO Johl said that the league would take place this year itself.
“We have got very good offers and in the next few weeks we will sign a deal. It will be the PGTI League and it will only be for professional players. The league has to be about pro golfers and can’t have amateurs in it,” Johl added.
Franchise based model
Johl also spoke about the format he envisaged for the league, saying it would be a franchise based model.
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“In my opinion, it would be head-to-head games between players from different franchises. Can you imagine Gaganjit Bhullar playing Jeev Milkha Singh one-on-one? That’s golf and that’s what we’re trying to do with the league,” said Johl.
Also present at the press conference was PGTI president Kapil Dev. The former India captain said that his organisation had no issues with IGPL and praised the organisation for bringing more cash into the sport. He then said that his responsibility wasn’t to take care of twenty top golfers but rather 250 golfers from the country.
“I think loyalty is very important. Like the cricket board has established themselves, we want to establish ourselves. This organisation looks after all professionals, not just a group of people,” said the 1983-World Cup winning captain at the press conference.
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