Women's Golf Association of India

Women’s Professional Golf – The Surge

5th November 2024 : It was only a few years ago, in 2016, that Golf was included as an Olympic sport. Ladies amateur golf in India was on a down slide, with few young girls taking up the game due to lack of a career option. The game had become one for the mid and senior amateur golfers in the country.

WGAI spent years on finding a way to sustain women’s golf in India. This was a challenge indeed in the mid 2000’s. The establishment of the Women’s Golf Association of India (Pro Golf) was indeed historic, and a landmark decision in 2004 December. However, the first season for women’s professional golf in India began only in 2006.

In 2009, during my dual role as the Chairperson of Indian Golf Union Ladies Section and Secretary General of the Women’s Golf Association of India, we were faced with an onerous task of bringing about changes in keeping with global trends.

As the dividing line between amateur and professional golf started to blur, the R&A tweaked their rules to ensure that the game became affordable for all. Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour had an Order of Merit. The top 3 players receive subsidies from the WGAI welfare fund to participate in international qualifying events. Several younger amateurs turned professional and this helped the number of women professional golfers to grow in 2010-11.

M/s. Hero MotoCorp Ltd. took the bold decision of taking over the title sponsorship of the Women’s Indian Open as well as the Women’s Professional Golf Tour after M/s. DLF Ltd. had supported the Indian Open and the Tour since inception.

In 2013 & 2014 another move forward was WGAI’s promotion of IGU’s NIGS (National Initiative for Golf in Schools) program. In partnership with WGAI, IGU conducted several successful junior camps in Srinagar, capital city of Jammu & Kashmir. Over a hundred children from across various schools in the valley were introduced to golf and imparted with basic coaching.

During COVID stricken years, golf webisodes via Zoom were conducted jointly by WGAI Secretary General, the DLF Academy and players from the Ladies European Tour. These included live lessons, as well as question and answer sessions.

The 15-leg Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour that acts as a qualifying Tour for entry into the Hero Women’s Indian Open, has grown year-on-year and several of the players have come through the ranks of the Junior Camp of Excellence. Besides professionals, the top amateurs compete in the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour and have then gone on to make a mark on global tours. Our players have benefitted from a surge in prize money, not only through the Tour but through ProAms which are being conducted at various clubs. As awareness has grown about the achievements of our women golfers overseas, a new generation of golfers is emerging.

WGAI is playing a significant role in sustaining healthy competitive golf as a career option for female golfers through corporate partnerships and sponsorships. In the next few years, there will be more young girls taking up golf as a career option. WGAI is now on the threshold of taking golf for women to another level, with its commitment to fair and transparent governance. This is in keeping with the “Spirit of Women” (SOW) and R&A’s “Women in Golf Charter”.

Champika N Sayal