As the golfing season comes to an end, September '99 seems a distant memory. When we embarked on the 1999-2000 season of the Wills Sport Golf zTour, we knew were taking on a huge task. One that would require a Herculean effort to surmount. We believed we could do it. Things were far from easy though, as every step brought a new stumbling block. Just as we thought the tour was picking one of the leading sponsors dropped out. And then another. This put a tremendous pressure on us as we had a committment to live up to, in addition to the responsibility towards a number of golfers who had entrusted their livelihoods in our hands. Today the 20th event of the tour got underway. The J Hampstead Open has infused a new and welcome life into the tour, which still has a long way to go. Indian golf has tremendous potential. I have seen a number of prodigiously talented youngsters go waste as they have no opportunity to display their skills, or worse still, because displaying skills will not earn them a living. India has more Jeev Milkha Singhs and Jyoti Randhawas, but it is upto us to make it worthwhile for them to view golf as a career option. A great deal of credit to make the sport worthwhile goes to the clubs like Aravalli, Bombay Presidency, the DSOI (Mhow), each of whom sponsored an event this season. Then there were companies like J Hampstead whose stepping in will help the game and the players.The first day's play at the J Hampstead Open proved that on a course like DLF, it is those golfers who are used to the conditions like those on offer on the Asian PGA tour, who will come up trumps. The presence of six golfers with prior experience of playing on such courses namely, Digvijay Singh, Amit Dube, Ashok Kumar, Uttam Mundy, Ajay Gupta and Gaurav Ghei stands proof to this fact. Digvijay has matured as a golfer after his victory at the BPGC Open last month. Let is hope thatvictory does for him what the Hero Honda Masters 98 win did fot Jyoti. Another golfer who is improving at a scary pace is Asho Kumar. It will not surprise me if this 17-year-old soon carves a niche for himself in world golf. At the rate at which he is going, the sky is the limit for him.
