Some Final Thoughts After my Visit

On this trip I was exposed to three very distinct styles of golf, and threes of the most common seen in India today; the extremely private and exclusive golf development, the association style of club, and army golf. It is interesting to see that golfing as a hobby or as an interest has always been part of the history of an area, be it in an army golf course or association style. Now there is a third dimension being added that of the luxury golf courses. In the next few years the golf industry is bound to transform as interest in the game is increasing. Barely a few years ago members of the armed forces would have laughed if their junior officers had even suggested that they wanted to learn and play golf. Now there are inter battalion tournaments and in some courses they help the officers themselves become better golfers!

Unfortunately I have slowly begun to realize that golf is heavily influenced by the area that it is in. for instance in the metros of India, developing and encouraging people to take interest in the game is much easier than if one was in a tier 3 city. On the other hand the metros also serve as a model to replicate for other cities as people tend to be aspirational and want to emulate the lifestyle they see in the metros. In either instance the sport must trickle down to encourage more participation from various sections of society, golf needs to be embraced by many other individuals. And all three styles of golfing developments can serve to do this. I am confident in the future there are going to be many more cities with such a variety of developments attached, the golf bug seems to be spreading and it is exciting to see where next it strikes!