Report of 2nd Indian Golf Forum 2011

On Thursday,8th of September 2011,2nd Indian Golf Forum was held at India Habitat Center,Delhi which was organized by sportzpower.It was a big conference as many big names were associated with it.Lords of Indian golf industry were attending that conference.It was endorsed by Indian Golf Union and had many sponsors.
The conference started at 10 AM with introductory remarks by...

• Thomas Abraham(director of sportzpower)
• H S Kingra(secretary general- Delhi Golf Society)
• Prakash Bhandari(president - DGS)

Then, lamp lightning took place which was done by the chief guest Desh Deepak Verma(director general- SAI)

Then around 10:45 AM vote of thanks took place and Thomas Abraham gave the honours to four famous personalities in Indian Golf for their lifetime contribution to the game i.e.
1. Prakash Bhandari
2. Atith Gaur
3. Romit Bose
4. V. Krishnaswamy

After that, session 1 was started.the main focus was on the infrastructure of Golf.
1st panelist Rajiv Talwar :

• focused on sports policy of 2007 which is a draft only.
• there is no legislation for golf land and facilities.
• according to him, real estate is being sold as a golfing properties.
• U.K. has 25 golf courses.They convert their village lands into golf courses.
• There is no golf academy in India.
• scientific methods are need to be improved.
• universities and colleges don't have any kind of golf programs for students.

2nd panelist - Mdhukar Chaturvedi(director Ram Bagh golf club,Jaipur)..he mentioned that:

• In 1986, he with some others made efforts to make golf courses of India like of Singapore.
• Promotion of golf requires a lot of investment.
• Public Private Partnership board is must for the development of the game.
• Ministery of tourism is promoting the golf.

3rd panelist- Rakesh Purohit, he told:

• New game pitch & put has launched.
• It has been accredited as a competitive sport by RLA.
• It is a nursery of golf.
• Its head office is in Spain.
• For the development of golf, we should introduce it through pitch & put which is shorter version of the game.
• 15 acre 9 hole course could be certified pitch & put course.
• They are allready working towards the development of golf through an NGO with no charges.

Final panelist- Brig. Virendra Kumar(1st secretary of DDA golf course Lado Sarai). he mentioned:

• Mainly golf courses are working on a pay and play basis.
• In 2000, they came up with public golf course.
• They have 13 qualified coaches certified by NGI.
• Pay only INR 120 to play at Qutab golf club.
• 60% of the golfers are playing on a pay and play basis.

In the 2nd Session the stress was on the availability of golf coaches in India and the reasons behind the less no. of coaches and why they are no more interested in coaching.
The moderator was Digraj Singh. Four panelist were taking part in the discussion.

Romit Bose(former golfer and presently a coach).According to him.

• Salary is the main factor for golf coaches.
• It could be taken as a part time job as income is low and there is no growth.
• Main solution could be funding.

Vandana Agarwal said:

• Empanel coaches to teach could be done by the government and associations.
• coaches are attracted towards event management because of money and sponsorship.

Other panelists also gave similar statements.

In Session 3, the discussion was on the golf tousrism and corporate golf.
Moderator was Mr. Rishi Narain. Four panelists were involvd in the discussion
1. Hte Hla Han 2. Digraj Singh 3. HS Kingra 4. Anurag Bhatnagar.
The main points were:

• Hotels are very expensive that's why tourists don't want to come for only golf.It's a kind of hindrance for the development of game.
• Some nice strategies are needed to attach golf with tourism.
• Southern china has the biggest golf facilities.
• In delhi, only 10 golf courses are available.
• In corporate golf,200-300 tournaments take place in the golf season every year.
• Golf is just a medium in corporates to achieve the goals of networking and entertainment.
• Corporate help is must in the golf.

In Session 4, problems related to golf broadcasting were discussed. The main focus was on widening of golf programming & broadcasting.The moderator was Gaurav Kalra whereas experts in the related field like Shaili Chopra, Gaurav Bahal ,Htwe Hla Han were the part of panel discussion.Shaili chopra is a famous anchor in ETV's show called Tee Time.Similarly, Gaurav Bahal is an editor in CNN.

In session 5 , moderator was V Krishnaswamy(a golf writer & commentator).
Romit Bose , Padamjit Sandhu and Karan Bindra were the part of the discussion panel. They discussed about the praparing golfers for Olympics and winning medals in it as golf is going to be re-introduced in 2016 Olympics.They admitted:

• Golf is must in colleges and universities for its development.
• Starting of fully funded golf courses in colleges and universities could help in broad basing.
• There is need to improve golf at grass root level to prepare better golfers.
• According to Romit Bose, India could make a mark in 2024 Olympics. Before that hard work is needed for the preparation.

After that, concluding session took place with many panelists came up with nice concluding ideas for the improvement of golfing scenario in India and for the better future of the game.

So, that's the end of the report of 2nd Indian Golf Forum 2011.