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The Incredible Potential of Golf in India

By: | Mon 21 Mar 2022


See the latest View From The Fairway by Golfshake's Derek Clements


THERE was a sense of what might have been after Anirban Lahiri finished runner-up at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

Ahead of the tournament he said: “The beauty about what we do is that you’re one week away from being a PGA Tour winner. You’re one week away from being at Augusta… one week away from you having a different kind of conversation with me.” 

The World No 322 was looking for his maiden PGA Tour victory after rediscovering his form and was content with his performance after he went close to forcing a play-off when Cameron Smith found the water en route to bogeying the 18th, where the Indian's chip for birdie was just a couple of feet from dropping.

"Of course, I wanted to win, I've been here seven years and haven't gotten over the line yet," Lahiri said. "That's definitely a monkey I want to get off my back. And this was as good an opportunity as any.

"I guess at one point on 16 I thought it was kind of out of reach, but then again, birdieing 17, Cam kind of opened the door. I gave it a good go.

"I made some mistakes that I could have avoided, but that's golf. I picked up a few shots, too, so I'm happy. This is a really positive week for me going forward.” 

India has a population of more than 1.8 billion but just 200,000 Indians play golf. This is a country with poverty on a massive scale, where golf is seen an an elite sport.

There is a huge potential market and had Lahiri managed to make the breakthrough as such a significant tournament there is no knowing the impact it might have had in his homeland. 

Hideki Matsuyama’s victory at The Masters last year turned him into a national hero in Japan, a country where golf was already incredibly popular. 

There are 196 golf courses in India. Significantly, 50% of those courses are located on military bases and are only accessible to the military.

A major challenge for anybody who wants to develop golf courses in India is the inability to acquire land in both a cost and time-efficient manner. Land parcels are generally small, and developers need to buy multiple plots at a huge cost, with no guarantee that they would then be able to attract sufficient players to make any new course profitable.

Lahiri is not the first Indian professional to make his mark. 

Sharma

(Indian Star Shubhankar Sharma - Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Jeev Milka Singh won three titles on the European Tour, four on the Japan Tour and six on the Asian Tour, and reached a career-high world ranking of 28th way back in March 2009. Lahiri has won twice on the European Tour and seven times on the Asian Tour and qualified for the Presidents Cup International team in 2015.

Even without Lahiri winning big on the PGA Tour it is estimated that India may need to build up to 100 new courses to satisfy the demand over the next decade. The real challenge is build courses that affordable and accessible for all and finding a way to increase the number of juniors taking up the game. 

It is believed that part of the answer may be to create more pitch and putt courses in the first instance and to that end the Indian Pitch and Putt Union has been established.

There is clearly huge potential for growth in India but it probably won’t happen unless Lahiri or somebody else can come close to winning a major.


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Tags: GOLFERS Golf



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