Leisure

Uncovering the turf

With golf becoming a popular sport in India, golf equipment manufacturers have started to target the country as an emerging market. Gayatri Vijaykumar reports

As golf equipment providers come up with myriad innovations to overcome the problems faced by the sport, India is increasingly becoming an important golfing destination. According to Anand Gandhi, director of Zaverchand Sports Equipment, a distributor of golf equipment in India, pegs the market at Rs 20-25 crore, growing at a rate of approximately 30-40 per cent in the last five years. One of the exhibitors at the HospitalityWorld 2007, Zaverchand Sports Equipments has been in the business of golf since 1952 when it started off assembling golf clubs. Currently, it supplies golf cars to golf courses in the country including Royal Springs, Srinagar and JP Greens, Noida.

Gandhi feels that the southern states are a growing market for golfing equipment with many golf courses coming up in and around Bangalore and other parts of the southern region. "India is not really known as a sports destination. Golf is perhaps the only sport that attracts tourists to the country. It is an upcoming market unlike Thailand and Malaysia that have already established themselves as golfing destinations." However, he believes that golf is still an elitist sport in India.

Infrastructure and space constraints have been cited as some of the main hurdles for promotion of golf in India. However, golf equipment providers are coming up with solutions to overcome space constraints.

According to Parag Shah, COO of Neo International Sports Academy (NISA) who is the software provider for Optigolf, an Australian Indoor Golf Simulator, innovations like the Optigolf help solve infrastructural problems. Its customers include hotels, clubhouses, residential complexes and even schools. The golf simulator consists of a regular golf ball which is hit onto a screen that can be programmed to display the top golf course in the world. With a height of 10 feet and a dimension of 6.5 by four meters, Optigolf lays claim to the distinction of offering the concept of virtual golf in India.

Maintaining the golf turf is another problem area. The pesticides required to maintain the turf along with the amount of water required to hydrate the grass leads to various environmental problems. This is the main reason why many golf courses are looking at artificial turfs as an option. According to Sanjeev Kumar Maity, national sales manager of Bangalore-based Magicturf, artificial turfs are resistant to fire, are UV treated and hence do not fade easily. More importantly, they do not require any watering.