Jeev Milkha Singh with the 2008 Singapore Open prize (Image courtesy: http://jeevmilkhasingh.net)
You would not even raise an eyebrow when you hear of some Indian kids wanting to emulate golfing ace Tiger Woods rather than a Sachin Tendulkar or a Leander Paes or a Viswanathan Anand or a Geet Sethi. Yet, as recently as two decades ago, if someone had predicted a golf boom in India, you would not have been blamed if you fell off your chair.
Consider this: Last year, Ashok Kumar won Rs 53 lakh in prize money from events on the Professional Golf Tour of India calendar. This year, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Kapurthala) has picked up cheques worth Rs 17.83 lakh from the PGTI Tour while the evergreen Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) has won Rs 14.38 lakh and Anirban Lahiri (Bangalore) Rs 14 lakh.
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