New Delhi, Feb (UNI) CEO of Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) Amandeep Johl feels that the growth of golf in a country has proven to be a big catalyst for its tourism and overall economic growth.
Speaking to UNI on the side-lines of the DP World Players Championship, being played from February 10-13 at the Qutab Golf Course here, Johl said that the track record of those countries that are considered as major Golf centres shows a clear correlation between growth of the sport, tourism boom and economic welfare.
โMission Hills in Guangdong Province of China has 18 golf courses and 22 hotels in one location and they are full at all times. There are tourists who fly into Guangdong by the plane loads, only coming for golf. Kunming city, nobody heard of it till they built 10 golf courses. Now it attracts tourists who come to play golf. A very small town like Pattaya in Thailand, besides its beaches, has 29 golf courses which are major crowd pullers. Traditional centres of golf like Scotland, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia – all have their tourism growth linked to golf.โ
Johl pointed out that golf tourists are high-end visitors, hence big spenders. โGolf tourists are all very high-value people. They stay at posh hotels, eat at the finest eateries, buy luxury items. Basically, spend a lot- exactly the kind of visitors that you wish to attract.โ
He said that in India for golf to flourish the game has to become accessible for the people. โWe need more and more people taking up the sport. We need to build 100 golf courses within the next 10 years. One of the advantages in India is, that in Europe and US players don’t have caddies, as it is too expensive. Here in India we can provide labour. Delhi Golf Club gives employment to 250 caddies; PGTI does the training for all the caddies. A caddie in Delhi Golf Club earns about Rs 35,000-50, 000 a month, which is not bad at all.โ
Johl explained how PGTIโs starting the SECL Chhattisgarh Open is helping transform the stateโs image for the better.
โWe started the SECL Chhattisgarh Open in 2025. Before we went there, nobody knew about Chhattisgarh. When you bring in a golf tournament the whole world starts seeing the place differently. As this is a global sport, the entire world takes notice. It is such a beautiful golf course on the banks of the huge lake Jhanjh Lake, and a beautiful resort. People have started perceiving Chhattisgarh differently. Golf has a huge role to play in the upliftment of the economy, upliftment of the state. And when people see that it is a safe place to go that’s when industry starts to move in. We are planning to ask the state governments that if they provide us land PGTI will bring in investment by setting up 2-3 golf courses.โ
Johl shared some details about the DP World Players Championship, the second event of the 2026 Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) season. It is currently being held at the Qutab Golf Course in New Delhi from February 10 to 13.
“126 players are participating in this tournament. After two days
there will be a cut and 50 will qualify for the last two days. Rs 1.5 crore is the total prize money. Due to the rising prize money, we see a lot of foreigners have come. More prize money means higher ranked players come to play and the tournament’s world ranking goes up. By and by this tournament becomes a World tour. Thatโs what we are hoping for.”
He explained that the tournament features top Indian talent. โIndian players are quite good, very competitive. All the top are playing this week; Shaurya Bhattacharya, Veer Ahlawat who won the ‘Order of Merit’ in 2024; Om Prakash Chauhan, Amardeep Malik, Manav Bains, Dhruv Sheoran, Honey Baisoya, among others. If the prize money is high then all top players are going to come and play. So my idea is to increase the prize money as much as I can. Last year, we played for almost Rs 35 crores. Hopefully we will go higher than that in 2026.โ
He emphasised the significance of the PGTIโs recently inked partnership with DP World.
โThis is the first of the DP World championships. We have just signed up with DP World as our title partner, and that is big news for PGTI and Indian golf. They have been the title partners of the European tour, and that has helped the European tour grow a lot. It has gone to different parts of the world. DP World has become synonymous with golf, so we are very glad that DP World has come on board. This is one of the first of the DP World players championships. Next week we will again have a DP World players championship(iin Kolkata).โ
UNI RKM RN