NEW DELHI, India -- Spurred on by the rapid growth of Indian men’s golf internationally, the ‘Women’s Golf Association of India’ (also christened the ‘Bharitiya Mahila Golf Sangh’) was launched in the capital on last Thursday.
The association will put together an ‘Indian Women’s Professional Golf Tour’ to provide an opportunity for not just our own women amateur golfers, but sports persons from other sports disciplines such as cricket, hockey and athletics to take up the sport as a life long career. The WGAI aims to duplicate the success story of legendary javelin thrower Babe Didrikson Zaharrias, who took to golf after retiring from her primary sport and proved to be a successful Tour player for several decades.
The Tour to be held under the aegis of both the WGAI and the PGAI, will be marketed and managed by the Delhi based Tiger Sports Marketing.
Announcing this at a press conference at the India International Centre in the Capital on Thursday, Arvind Khanna, President – Professional Golfers’ Association of India (PGAI) termed this new development as exciting news for Indian golf.
“The decision of the WGAI to launch a full fledged professional Tour for India’s women golfers is an excellent step in popularizing the sport of golf in India. The Professional Golfers’ Association of India will do its every bit to support this cause” said Khanna. “We have a number of supremely talented junior women playing as amateurs who might now want to test their skills on a world stage. The new professional Tour promises to offer them this very opportunity and also to talented sportswomen from other sporting disciplines. Indeed these are very exciting times for Indian golf. It is the beginning of a whole new era,” he added.
The WGAI has received terrific support from President Satish Tandon and Patrons Anjani Desai and Sita Rawlley. Desai and Rawlley both Arjuna Awardees, have made a sterling contribution to Indian women’s golf over the years as has the Secretary General of the WGAI, Champika Sayal. Sayal has been the former Chairperson of the Indian Golf Union Ladies Section, while Desai in addition to being an outstanding golfer was also an excellent swimmer and tennis player at the national level.
One of the first steps being initiated towards the cause of ‘Empowerment of women through sport’ is WGAI’s decision to host an international Skins event preceded by a pro-am at the DLF Golf & Country Club in October. Offering a prize purse of USD 18,000, the tournament will be contested by India’s first and only LPGA Tour player, Simi Mehra Guffin. Among the other prominent players to have been invited by the WGAI are none other than President Tour players of LPGA, Heather Daly Donofrio and Tour regular Hilary Lunke. Both Donofrio and Lunke have close to a million dollars in career prize money earnings. Also participating will be 2004 Rookie of the year, Paraguay’s Celeste Troche. In addition several leading Indian teaching professionals will be given an opportunity to qualify for the event.
“This is a dream come true for me,” said Simi Mehra Guffin. “I had to struggle to get to where I have reached, but not many women are as fortunate or lucky as I. This is one reason why we are keen to provide talented Indian women golfers with an opportunity to perform on home grounds and there from be able to make a mark on the Asian and world stage. The progress made by an organised men’s Tour in India is there for everybody to see and I am confident that the women’s professional Tour golf will experience a similar growth with the right support in the years to come,” she added.
