The Golf tournaments in India are organised in almost all parts of the country, especially in the major cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, etc. The tournaments are also recognised by the Asian PGA Tour and the results of the tournaments are also included in the Asian Order of Merit. The Golf tournaments in India have been playing an important role in bringing up new talents in Indian Golf and also in providing enough practice opportunity to the Golfers.
The Hero Honda Indian Open is considered to be one of the oldest Golf tournaments in India. The tournament started its journey as Indian Open, in the year 1964 and has been played at the Delhi Golf Club for the past seven years. This is the oldest international Golf tournament in India and is also one of the major tournaments in the Asian PGA Tour. The tournament was the brainchild of five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson, who approached the Indian Golf Union for organising an international golf tournament. Thomson became the winner of the tournament for thrice in the years of 1964, 1966 and 1976 and also one of the regular participants. Apart from him, some of the other top class players like Guy Wolstenholme, Angel Miguel and Graham Marsh also participated in the event, in various occasions.
The Hero Honda Indian Open became a part of the Asian Golf Circuit in 1970 and in 1991, Ali Sher broke the stranglehold of foreign players by becoming the first Indian professional to win this prestigious tournament. After him, a number of top Indian professionals like Feroze Ali (1998), Arjun Atwal (1999), Jyoti Randhawa (2000) and Vijay Kumar (2002) have won the championship, so far. The tournaments started to be recognised as the Wills Indian Open from the year 1998 and it was named as Hero Honda Indian Open in 2005. The event is being promoted by the World Sport Group, and it offers huge prize money of US $400,000.
The Aamby Valley Asian Masters is another top class Golf tournament in India. The tournament was played only once in May, 2006 and it was an Asian Tour Golf tournament. The tournament was one of the two Asian Tour events in India held in that year, alongside the Hero Honda Indian Open. The prize money of the tournament is US$400,000 and the famous South African Golfer; Hendrik Buhrmann became the winner in this tournament. Being counted among the top Golf tournaments in India, the Indian Masters started its journey in February, 2008. This is a professional Golf tournament on the European and Asian Tours and it was introduced as part of the continuing globalisation of the European Tour. With the inception of the tournament, India became the 37th territory to stage a European Tour event and the tournament also increased the total number of tournaments played in Asia to twelve, as of the 2008 season.
The promoters of the Indian Masters are `Golf in Dubai`. They are also in charge of promoting the other prestigious tournaments like the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour and the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour. The 2008 prize fund of the tournament was US$2.5 million, i.e. the largest ever offered at a golf tournament in India. The prize money was also one of the largest in Asia.
Apart from the above mentioned tournaments, there are also some other Golf tournaments in India that are being played for the past several years. Some of the major tournaments include the PGTI Players Championship, the Solaris Chemtech Open, the BT Pro-Am of Champions, the Global Green Bangalore Open, the SAIL Open, the SRF All India Professional Golf Matchplay Championship, the Airtel India Golf Festival, the DLF Women`s Professional Golf, the Eagleton Open Amateur, the Eastern India Amateur, the Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, the Hero Honda Indian Open, the Jaypee Open Amateur, the Northern India Amateur, the Singhania Golf Championship, the Solaris Chemtech Championship, the South India Amateur, the Tata Open, the Western India Amateur, etc.
