Professional Golf Tour of India may resume in November

CHENNAI: Most of India’s elite athletes have already started training in some shape or form post the first lockdown in March. Even though tournaments are yet to begin, training has begun with a few to taking part in events overseas.

One section of athletes do not have this avenue open to them — most of India’s golfers. Even though the PGA and European Tours have resumed, barring a few exceptions like Shubhankar Sharma and Anirban Lahiri, India’s golfers do not have the eligibility to play in the above mentioned Tours. 

For the likes of Udhayan Mane and Khalin Joshi, the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) is the bread and butter. PGTI has been shut since March. However, India’s premier golfing Tour could be back up and running from November.  “Hopefully we will have events from November,” PGTI CEO, Uttam Singh Mundy, told this daily.

“Nothing has been decided yet with respect to where we will play the events or whether players will be required to come to us with Covid-19 negative certificates.”

The timeframe isn’t yet certain — “the situation is still changing on na everyday basis and we will go by the MHA guidelines,” says Mundy — but the CEO is of the opinion that they will decide the protocol by October.  

If 2019 is anything to go by, there were six events in the last two months including an Asian Tour event in New Delhi. But there is little prospect of any Asian Tour events being held as of now. Speaking to AFP last week, Tour CEO, Cho Minn Thant, said: “We have approached countries with the same protocols that the US, European tours and other sports have employed.” Full report: newindianexpress.com