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When
he was thrown out of the Air Force Golf Club in Delhi on charges
of theft in 1994, Ashok Kumar's aspirations of reaching the higher
echelons in golf looked all but shattered. For one, who belonged
to rural area of Samastipur in Bihar, it was a shocking experience
as he was trying to earn his livelihood by doing a job as a caddie.
Arjun
Atwal and Jyoti Randhwa |
After
nearly a decade, the same caddie is proving to be an emerging professional
in the country. Ashok finished fifth in the Indian golf tour with
his earnings crossing Rs. 0.8 million in the previous season.
Ashok's fairy-tale journey is one among many such stunning stories
if one considers the top golf professionals in the country.
"Golf has changed my life," says Ashok, who used to earn Rs. 50
per day as a caddie before amateur Amit Luthra came to his rescue.
Ashok's effort coupled with the rise of golf in the country is proving
to be an ideal blend for talented professionals.
An Indian professional earning over Rs 2 million in prize-money
from the domestic sports circuit is not something that one gets
to hear about often.
True,
there is bound to be an alarming difference when prize-money on
offer in the international circuit is compared with domestic tournaments.
But unlike cricket, in which there is a huge discrepancy in terms
of what state players and big stars manage to earn on an annual
basis, golf has proved an attractive proposition even on the domestic
circuit.
When
the previous season of the Indian Professional Golf (IPGA) Tour,
known as Hero Honda Golf Tour, ended in April this year, caddie-turned
pro Mukesh Kumar had earnings of Rs 2.17 million from the 21 events
he had teed off in.
The
total prize money on offer in the 25 events conducted in 2002-03
season was Rs 24.2 million, again the biggest in terms of money
involved in the domestic circuit. Besides this, there are two Asian
PGA Tour events in the Hero Honda Masters and Royal Challenge Indian
Open, both worth $300,000, held in the country, making total money
at stake over Rs 54 million.
These
figures are commendable considering the fact that ITC Limited was
forced to withdraw its sponsorship from various sporting events
in 2001 after the introduction of the Tobacco Products Bill. ITC's
trademark apparels brand Wills Sport, involved as the title sponsor
of the IPGA Tour since 1997, had contributed more than Rs 45 million
in 2000-01 for its involvement in the IPGA and APGA Tours.
Jeev
Milkha Singh |
After
ITC was smoked out, Hero Honda Motors Limited stepped up its involvement
as the two-wheeler major took over as the title sponsor of the IPGA.
Also, the prize-money of the Hero Honda Masters, the APGA tour with
which the company has been involved since 1997, has been increased
from $200,000 to $300,000 making it on par with the other APGA event
Royal Challenge Indian Open.
A
good deal of credit for the popularity of golf in the country goes
to the Professional Golfers Association of India and Tiger Sports
Marketing (TSM), which has the commercial rights for the Indian
PGA Tour and the Hero Honda Masters. IMG has the commercial rights
for Royal Challenge Indian Open.
According
to Delhi-based Tiger Sports Marketing (TSM), which has a stake in
leading sports management company Percept D'Mark, the domestic prize-money
in the new season, set to commence in July, is expected to touch
Rs 26 million.
"We
had five new sponsors in Color Plus, Forest Hill Golf Course Chandigarh,
Tata Steel, J&K Tourism and Hyundai Motor India in the last season.
The response from corporate houses continues to be very encouraging.
For instance, DHL, which had sponsored a modified stableford tournament
last year, increased its prize money from Rs 0.6 million to Rs 1
million in its second year. Tata Steel is planning to conduct a
Rs 2.5 million event this year after being involved with a Rs 1
million event in its inaugural professional tournament in Jamshedpur,"
said TSM senior manager-media, Joy Chakravarty.
Other
sponsors associated with IPGA events include The Hindu, Servo, The
Hindustan Times, Dutch Bangla Bank, SRF and Honda Siel.
The
rise of golf in stature in monetary terms has gone hand in hand
with the success of Indian professionals such as Jyoti Randhawa,
who won the APGA order of merit last year and Arjun Atwal winning
two events on the European PGA Tour. Besides Randhawa and Atwal,
Jeev Milkha Singh continues to excel on tougher circuits such as
the Japanese PGA Tour.
Geoffrey
Boycott and Shilpa Shetty at the Hero Honda Masters 1999. |
"Golf
may not be cricket but it provides a solid platform for sponsors
to tap a certain section of audiences. In case of Hero Honda, it
sponsors cricket tournaments targeting masses while it uses golf
as a brand building exercise. They cater to the segment, which plays
golf," added Chakravarty.
Besides
professional events, golf, through corporate events and charity-linked
tournaments provides different options. In case of corporate events,
usually one-day affair during weekend, corporate houses invite selective
list of consumers or clients and business partners for strengthening
their relationship. During the off-season, TSM is gearing up for
the international charity tournament `Christel House Open 2003'.
The event, sponsored by ING Vysya and co-sponsored by 3M and MSN
India, will held simultaneously at 20 golf courses in four continents
on 16 June.
So
what are the expenses a sponsor has to bear when its gets involved
with an event? "Lets say if the prize-money of an event is x, then
the amount spend by sponsor is approximately 2x. Besides prize-money,
sponsor has to give capitation fee to Professional Golfers Association
of India, management fee to Tiger Sports Marketing, venue décor
and capitation fee to golf course. This excludes advertising and
other promotional activities undertaken by the sponsor," said Chakravarty.
There
seems to be no dearth of accountability as far as operations of
TSM are concerned. Besides providing value for money to its clients
by providing maximum visibility at the course, unlike in many other
sports in the country, TSM also excels in its relation with media.
The
coverage of IPGA tour is assured by a professional team, which comprises
scorers and public relation division of TSM. Even for Hindi media,
which at times, seems to be clueless when it comes to coverage,
TSM provides enough insight to the media persons to clear their
concern regarding nuances of the sport.
"Besides
media coverage, we have developed an online platform for our clients
in the form of `indiangolftour.com'. We have our monthly newsletter,
which goes to golf courses throughout the country. Then we had tied
up with TEN Sports for IPGA Tour last year. There are media partners
for our events and there are professional-amateur (pro-am) events
during each professional event, which provides networking opportunities
to our sponsors," said Chakravarty, who feels there are lots of
intangible benefits as well which sponsors get through their association
with golf.
Gone
are the days when golf was considered to be a past time by selective
group of people or Army professionals. The number of golf courses
has touched 204 across the country and the list also includes designer
courses such as Arnold Palmer-designed DLG Golf and Country Club
and Jack Nicklaus-designed Classic Golf Resort in the northern part
of the country.
With
Indian players performing well on the international circuit and
domestic circuit continuing to grow, golf is destined to stay here
for a long time. Cricket may be miles ahead of the rest but success
of golf proves there is space for more if sport federations bring
in more professionalism and accountability in their operations.
For list of leading money earners on the circuit:
The
Money list
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