INDIA is a sleeping giant in golf, Australian legend Greg Norman has said, as he called for more tournaments to be held in the country to help players realise their true potential.
The 69-year-old former world number one, who has 88 professional titles under his belt, spoke of his optimism for India’s growth in the sport.
“One of my initial focus points was to invest into the sleeping giant, which was the Asian tour. India is a sleeping giant when it comes to golf,” Norman said in Gurugram, outside Delhi, on the sidelines of the Asian Tour International Series event last Sunday (2).
He added, “You just look what’s happening in India with the game of golf – it has only just started, right? For the next 25 years, which is a generation, India is right in the middle of them.”
Norman was the CEO of LIV, a breakaway league founded in 2022 and financed by Saudi Arabia.
It introduced rules such as three-day 54-hole tournaments, instead of the traditional 72-hole four-day events. The LIV tournaments have also eliminated the concept of weekend cut and those who start get to play the entire tournament; they are also entitled to prize money.
The International Series is a partnership between the Asian Tour and LIV. It adheres to the traditional 72-hole concept with a cut at the end of two rounds, to ensure players are entitled to points under the world golf ranking system, which refused to recognise the 54-hole LIV events.
The LIV events have also faced significant resistance from the existing PGA Tour (USA)and the European Tour, which claim that the parallel tour “disrupts” the sport by offering players higher prize money and a seemingly more relaxed rules structure.
Norman said LIV can help Indian golf, which previously saw Jeev Milkha Singh, Shiv Kapur, SSP Chawrasia, Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal regularly win tournaments on all three tours till about a decade ago.
However, the winning momentum has been somewhat lost in the past five years.
Norman said, “I [would] love for LIV to come to India, because to me, it’s significant, right? Everything takes baby steps. And, obviously, the international place to enter the league is important to do that. “LIV created a new dynamic for the game of golf, because it gave an opportunity in the competitive golfing world for a new business model... Different formats have come out and enticed millions and millions of people to come into the game of golf.”
He added, “I truly believe LIV will be the true global platform for golf. We want to be in all the continents of the world...We bring a product that’s a plug and play that’s never been done before. We bring franchise models. We’re bringing the youth side of it.”
India’s Anirban Lahiri has joined ranks with LIV, along with some other prominent names like Bryson DeChambeau, two-time Major winner Dustin Johnson and Lee Westwood, a former world number one.
Norman described Lahiri, who has seven Asian and two European titles to his credit, as “not just a great golfer, but a great person”, adding, “he’s a great representative of your country.”
The Australian great was also full of praise for 15-year-old rising Indian golfer Kartik Singh, who made the cut at the International Series in Gurugram.
“He’s captured it. He made the cut. I think it’s pretty impressive. I haven’t seen his swing at golf club...I look forward to seeing his swing at golf club.
MCC president Mark Nicholas. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)