India's golf potential encourages R&A to lend full support to IGU for development

Indian golf’s growing status and its immense potential received a resounding thumbs up from the game's governing body, the R&A, who stressed the importance of improving the perception of the sport by making it more appealing and accessible.

R&A officials Neal Graham, the Development Manager Middle East and India, and Jerome Ng, Regional Director (Asia-Pacific) Development, are here in India for a seminar and to discuss various future projects in India.

"India given the size of the country has a lot of opportunities. We believe it’s very important that we support the Indian Golf Union in their initiatives and programmes to develop golf. And that’s not just about high performance, that’s looking from grassroots and upwards to that," Graham said.

"It's important that we look at improving the perception of the game of golf. We understand that here in India, cricket is the No. 1 sport, it takes up a lot of time and it takes up a lot of potential opportunities.

"But we work very closely with the international federations to change the perception of the game, to make it more attractive. We are aware that golf takes a long time to play – 4 to 5 hours. We do quite a bit of short course formats of the game to make it more appealing, more accessible as well." Graham said R&A is supportive of the needs of the IGU.

"We’re very keen to help and assist them in building that pathway from grassroots all the way through to high performance. That is our No. 1 objective to help and support," he said.

"There is a great opportunity. There is a huge population. There is a great willingness to promote the game across the country, whether it’s through the IGU, the state golf associations and other state clubs. So that’s a real positive, that there is a willingness." Echoing similar sentiments, Ng said, "India is definitely one of our key focus markets for innovation, especially in the future. And hence, that's the reason why we actually hosted the strategy workshop with the IGU this week.

"I think we had a full day where we actually hosted the council members, coming in together to brainstorm what the pathways for Indian golf in the near and far future. I think the future is bright for Indian golf because there are a lot of passionate individuals within the council.

"Of course, there are always more problems to be solved, but I think that's why people are there. I think having a strategic plan paves the way forward for any successful organisation, I think that's what we'll see." Brijinder Singh, President of the IGU, is very satisfied with the support and interest that R&A is showing in India.

"We've been very happy with the relationship we share with the R&A. They took up this opportunity to come to India, they hosted our entire council, and we had a full day brainstorming session. They invested their time, and organised this conference," he said.

"We understood a lot of things we did not think about, and after this brainstorming session, a lot of notebooks have been filled. We will use all the good information that we have received. We look forward to R&A’s continued support.

"These gentlemen bring a world of experience, and the very fact that they are concerned, they come to us, they share with us, they share our concerns about growing golf in India. I think that the biggest learning for us has been from their presence more than anything else." The R&A plans to make regular visits to India and not just monitor the progress but also help in setting up future projects, especially at the junior level.