Indian Masters
The Indian Masters is a new professional golf tournament that will be played for the first time from 7-10 February 2008, in a slot used by the Malaysian Open in 2007. It will be sanctioned by the European Tour and the Indian Golf Union, making India the 37th territory to stage a European Tour event. The promoters are Golf in Dubai, who also run the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour and the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour. The tournament is part of the continuing globalisation of the European Tour, which has 12 tournaments in Asia in 2007. However the announcement of the event drew sharp criticism from both the Asian Tour chairman Kyi Hla Han [1] and the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) [2], as both organisations claimed the the European Tour had breached International Federation of PGA Tours protocols by not making advance arrangements with them for co-sanctioning of this event staged in their region. The Indian Golf Union issued a statement a few days after the tournament was announced stating that the European Tour had approached it and was willing to offer through the PGTI 20 invitations to Indian domestic players.
The prize fund will be US$2.5 million, which is the largest ever offered at a golf tournament in India, one of the largest few at a tournament in Asia, and slightly below the 2007 average on the European Tour.
The long established Indian Open is an Asian Tour event.
References
- ^ ASIAN TOUR STATEMENT, asiantour.com, 11 June 2007.
- ^ Indian Pro Tour joins Europe-Asia row with boycott threat, golftoday.co.uk, 13 June 2007.