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PGTI set to launch its own league to take on rebel IGPL
The new tournament, IGPL, could disrupt the domestic golf scene while PGTI too seeks to start a league sometime soon
New Delhi: Indian golf has struggled to find new champions at the international stage for some years now. Now, there is some upheaval in the domestic set-up as well. Days after the launch of a rival Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) Tour and league, the official Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), which has downplayed the move, announced its scheduled for the rest of the season and a likely setting up of its own league.
The modalities for the league are being worked out. “It’s not in response to IGPL. We have been thinking about it for a while,” PGTI CEO Amandeep Johl said on Saturday.
The six-team IGPL is expected to debut next January and will feature 60 golfers in a home-and-away, mixed-team format. It announced the signing of veterans Shiv Kapur, SSP Chawrasia, and Gaurav Ghei as three of the skippers with Asian Tour regular Gaganjeet Bhullar revealed as an icon player.
The bulk of IGPL’s male players will be drawn from PGTI — women pros will come from WGAI while the amateurs come under the Indian Golf Union (IGU) umbrella. Both WGAI and IGU are with IGPL and their representatives accompanied IGPL management when they met union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently.
About 20-22 PGTI pros, it has been learned, have jumped the ship for a signing amount ranging between ₹10-20 lakh. Tour regulars Aman Raj and Sachin Baisoya are also tipped to join IGPL.
PGTI president Kapil Dev on Saturday brushed aside concerns of an exodus. “I have the responsibility of 350 golfers, not just 20. I have to see the bigger picture — for my team, my board, and everyone involved. Of course, I would have liked if they’d worked with us,” he said.
PGTI and IGPL have been in touch for over a year but talks fell off in recent months. “What’s happened has happened. Let’s not talk about what went wrong,” Johl said. Insiders claim the major point of contention was Bharat Golf Private Limited’s — the company backing IGPL — opaque funding.
“We don’t know where the money is coming from. The company was floated only last year. They are yet to file tax returns. They have the backing of a businessman from Hyderabad but there’s no transparency,” a senior PGTI member said. Queries regarding IGPL funding, at their recent virtual press meet, were ignored.
IGPL, it has been learned, intended to take over PGTI and rename it as IGPL Tour. The PGTI in lieu was to get ₹15 crore annually.
“We couldn’t have let that happen. Also, we are dealing with DP World Tour and PGA Tour and any financial dealing that appears fishy will not work in our favour,” the official said. “Most of the players they are in touch with are either past their prime or struggle to make the cut on PGTI.”
With its no cut, three-day stroke play format, IGPL, like most leagues, envisions to “revolutionise the sport and make it spectator friendly.” All contracted men and women pros will earn guaranteed prize money.
Johl dismissed it. “Golf is about being competitive. If you want to play at the highest level, you have to compete. If players start getting used to free money, you’re never going to create world champions,” he said.
“We are going to play on the DP World Tour, the Olympics, the Asian Games—and we’re going to win medals. But if you start giving freebies, players will stop working hard. Also, playing on PGTI gives you ranking points while there’s no such incentive at IGPL,” he explained.
Indian pros, meanwhile, have been struggling in international tours for a while now. For the past three years, thanks to PGTI’s partnership with DP World Tour, the Order of Merit topper gets the full season European card. Every PGTI tournament offers a minimum prize purse of ₹1 crore, but the results are not coming. The last Indian man to win a European Tour event was Shubhankar Sharma in 2018, at the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur.
“It’s a concern, no doubt. Guys like Yuvraj Sandhu and Veer Ahlawat need to string together four good days, and once they do that, they can get on a roll,” Johl said.
Shiv Kapur put it down to conditions and a lack of hunger. “There are many factors. The conditions are starkly different overseas, but our players should show more hunger and desire to win,” he said.
