Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) will kick off the inaugural TAKE Open Golf Championship from October 19 at Karnataka Golf Association in Bengaluru. The event will be a four-day affair i.e. from October 19 to October 22 and will offer cash prize up to Rs. 1 Crore. It is also the third biggest tournament organized by PGTI in its history.
This is the second time when PGTI is hosting a golf event as earlier they organized the same type of tournament which was played in the month of August at Noida.
“We wanted to support our local players and the PGTI by making this a National event. We felt it’s important to give a solid platform to our players at their home ground before they are ready to compete at a bigger level. I hope that the successful staging of the TAKE Open will inspire the Indian Pros to excel in the game. I would like to thank KGA for giving us the world class facility for this initiative of encouraging our National players.” Said Mr. Srinivasan, the HR, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, TAKE Solutions.
Uttam Singh Mundy, the Director, of PGTI, also had few words to share on this event and said “We thank TAKE Solutions for launching the TAKE Open, the latest addition to the PGTI schedule. TAKE Solutions has been a pillar of strength for Indian professional golf over the last several years as they have not only sponsored prize money events but also some of the leading Indian professionals thus facilitating their graduation to the international level. We look forward to our second event in association with Taking Solutions this season.”
Surely these types of the tournament will help golf to grow and gain popularity in India as still, golf is one of the sidelined sports in our country. We hardly see any media coverage of golf events in our country but that is not the case all around the globe as it is one of the famous and luring game around the world. The money which golf offers is quite higher than offered by cricket but it’s not the case here in India.
India needs a poster boy in golf who can attract others to take up this support as a career, though Aditya Alok attracted a lot of media attention after her superb show in Rio Olympics 2016 but P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik diverted all the attention with a medal in their respective events. A medal in an Olympic event will surely divert people attention and will force them to opt for this game as well. But till then this game may not be able to convince the people as still, it is one of the preferred by the people belonging to the upper level of society.