They say Multi-Billion dollar deals are supposed to get signed when you play golf with the plutocrats. Strangely, the Nabob Parvenu class in India hasn’t quite resonated with such fables despite golf’s presence for quite sometime in India. Thus, just to put paid to current perceptions of the pseudo-club, B&E does a quasi-subjective survey of the sport (and is surprised)
One key example that met our eyes was Digraj Singh, who runs Digraj Golf Inc., a corporate golf business, which has got even the likes of Thomas Cook interested in associating monetarily with the sport in a big way. Digraj started a landmark league that stretched golf: usually a golfing event for men is for 4 days, and for women, 3 days. Digraj Golf Inc. started a league this year that is played in Delhi for over 2 months. And ‘stretching golf’ is not only in terms of the time golf is being played. The plan is to extend the tournament to all those golfers (and by PGTI data, there are 100,000 golfers in India today) who want to play but are either not professionals or do not have the money to pay for regular golf event. Indiver Rastogi, Head, Enterprise Business Unit, Thomas Cook India Ltd, says he and Rakshit Desai, Executive Director, Travel Services, had been thinking of doing something with golf for some time. “So when Digraj came up with the idea of a league with such a broad base, we did not take much time at all to get associated,” he said. They saw golf as an area of change. The Indian Golf League, of which they are the title sponsors, allows their customers to play golf for two months. This was unimaginable before Digraj came up with the league concept.
No wonder, the best brands are teeing off to catch the golf train. Rolex, Mercedez Benz, Seagram, LG, Audi, Aircel, Tata Steel, Indian PSUs SAIL, ONGC... you name ‘em and they are there. The reason, explains Parmar, is that foreign companies realise that India has two major assets lacking in other countries: sprawling landscapes that can house golf courses and a booming economy with a massive disposable income in the hands of the middle and upper middle classes for the country to become the regeneration crib for golf.
From a comparatively insignificant 80 contestants for the Indian Junior Tour some five years ago, there are now 200. But more than any other index, the amateur golf story in India is marked by the stepping in of the US-based sports marketing behemoth, IMG, which now has a joint venture with Reliance Industries (Nita Ambani being the presiding deity for Reliance’s sports investment) to give scholarship to four young golfing talents, who’d be given comprehensive education plus golf training in the Florida-based Leadbetter (named after the golfing legend) institute. The IMG Reliance JV’s Indian golf programme will invest a million dollars on each selected talent, who would go to Florida for an 11-hour per day gruelling course of formal education plus golf training from this year on.
One key example that met our eyes was Digraj Singh, who runs Digraj Golf Inc., a corporate golf business, which has got even the likes of Thomas Cook interested in associating monetarily with the sport in a big way. Digraj started a landmark league that stretched golf: usually a golfing event for men is for 4 days, and for women, 3 days. Digraj Golf Inc. started a league this year that is played in Delhi for over 2 months. And ‘stretching golf’ is not only in terms of the time golf is being played. The plan is to extend the tournament to all those golfers (and by PGTI data, there are 100,000 golfers in India today) who want to play but are either not professionals or do not have the money to pay for regular golf event. Indiver Rastogi, Head, Enterprise Business Unit, Thomas Cook India Ltd, says he and Rakshit Desai, Executive Director, Travel Services, had been thinking of doing something with golf for some time. “So when Digraj came up with the idea of a league with such a broad base, we did not take much time at all to get associated,” he said. They saw golf as an area of change. The Indian Golf League, of which they are the title sponsors, allows their customers to play golf for two months. This was unimaginable before Digraj came up with the league concept.
No wonder, the best brands are teeing off to catch the golf train. Rolex, Mercedez Benz, Seagram, LG, Audi, Aircel, Tata Steel, Indian PSUs SAIL, ONGC... you name ‘em and they are there. The reason, explains Parmar, is that foreign companies realise that India has two major assets lacking in other countries: sprawling landscapes that can house golf courses and a booming economy with a massive disposable income in the hands of the middle and upper middle classes for the country to become the regeneration crib for golf.
From a comparatively insignificant 80 contestants for the Indian Junior Tour some five years ago, there are now 200. But more than any other index, the amateur golf story in India is marked by the stepping in of the US-based sports marketing behemoth, IMG, which now has a joint venture with Reliance Industries (Nita Ambani being the presiding deity for Reliance’s sports investment) to give scholarship to four young golfing talents, who’d be given comprehensive education plus golf training in the Florida-based Leadbetter (named after the golfing legend) institute. The IMG Reliance JV’s Indian golf programme will invest a million dollars on each selected talent, who would go to Florida for an 11-hour per day gruelling course of formal education plus golf training from this year on.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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