How golf has broken through class barrier

For a long time, golf has been considered elitist and often became the butt of criticism for being a sport for just a very few. The good news is, all that is changing. And changing fast. The sport today has broken the class barrier, turned highly inclusive, seeped through beyond metros into Tier II cities and is now growing in places like Kashmir and Meghalaya.

The misimpression of golf being a sport for the rich and the famous has now got examples that stand the test of time and effort in the game. Today, India can boast of at least 50 prolific players who come from humble backgrounds, are caddies-or fore caddies-turned-pros.

They started playing out with sliced golf balls and borrowed golf club but have excelled to win significant accolades and earn money to change their lives entirely. Rashid Khan, Shamim Khan, Chikkarangappa, Mukesh Kumar and Ashok Kumar are just some of the players making headlines in the international circuit.

A stellar new programme organised by the National Golf Academy and the Women’s Golf Association of India is promoting the game in schools in the Kashmir valley. To the surprise of many, these have seen a huge turnout of both young boys and girls wanting to learn a new sport. The state too is steadily promoting its golf courses in Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam.

Meghalaya has for long had a beautiful course in Shillong. One of the oldest in the country, it was a well-maintained preserve of the British Raj for the exclusive benefit of senior civil servants, dignitaries and tea planters. But after lying waste for decades, it’s now been upgraded and refurbished. The state tourism department is consciously promoting the game and encouraging more tourists to the region to add this to their itinerary. It’s also giving locals a chance at the game and the course is becoming a reason to promote the sport for the young and the old.

In Gujarat, the government has taken upon itself to push for courses. Many new golf clubs and academies have opened up and more and more people are taking to the sport, including juniors and women, at courses in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Vadodara.

India’s biggest golf ambassador, Jeev Milkha Singh, admits that compared to China, the market size in India is small, but it is growing rapidly. Golf’s biggest patrons in India have time and again pushed the government to take reins of promoting the sport. Hopefully like the state governments, the centre, too, will step in.

Even as the game like most sports suffers a bit during the downturn or gets strapped for big funds due to a volatile rupee, these examples above make for a real reason to support golf. One of the world’s oldest sport can produce champions of the future even in India. The more we encourage it, the closer we get to producing our own homegrown equivalent of Tiger Woods.

Like in all businesses, it’s common sense to invest when the chips are down. One can say that about golf too.

Shaili Chopra is an award-winning business journalist and founder of www.golfingindian.com