New Delhi: The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) has added four new events to the first half of its calendar, taking the total number of domestic tournaments in the February-April season to 11. There Tour is in talks with potential sponsors to add three more events in the jam-packed window to offer maximum playing avenues to domestic golfers, PGTI CEO Amandeep Johl said on Monday.
The events that have been added to the calendar are Chhattisgarh Open Golf Championship (Feb 25‑28, prize money ₹1cr) to be played at Fairway Golf & Lake Resort in Naya Raipur, PGTI Invitational at Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort (April 1‑4, prize money ₹1.5cr), Indorama Open Golf Championship (April 9-12, prize money ₹2 cr) at Kalhaar Blues & Greens Golf Club in Ahmedabad, and Calance Open (April 15-18, prize money ₹1cr) in Delhi-NCR.
The tour usually breaks for three months starting in May to account for peak summer and monsoon months, but this year, PGTI may also look to add a few events in May.
The new PGTI season will tee-off on February 11 with the PGTI Players Championship presented by Tollygunge Club in Kolkata. Once underway, the season will feature 11 consecutive weeks of golf with a prize purse of ₹15.66 crore on offer, excluding the DP World Tour co-sanctioned Indian Open, a $2.25million event.
The PGTI has so far staged events across India in 16 States and two Union Territories along with Delhi-NCR. With the inaugural Chhattisgarh Open, PGTI makes its first foray into the state.
“We are very excited to take high-quality golf to Chhattisgarh. Slowly but surely, we will take golf to hitherto unexplored geographies of the country,” PGTI president Kapil Dev said.
The second half of the season will begin in August, the schedule of which is still in the works. PGTI conducted 20 tournaments in 2023 and 21 in 2024. This year, the tour aims to hold 25 events in the year with a total yearly prize purse of ₹35cr, surpassing the record high of ₹33cr from the 2024 PGTI season.
Besides, the three international events scheduled to be staged are the DP World Tour co-sanctioned Indian Open and the Challenge Tour co-sanctioned Kolkata Challenge and Delhi Challenge.
PGTI also announced the resumption of its second-tier tour after a five-year gap. Three NexGen events, with a prize purse of ₹20 lakh each, are scheduled in the first half of the year at Phillaur, Kapurthala, and Gurugram.
“The launch of the PGTI NexGen events will help us create an efficient supply of talented golfers,” Dev said. The PGTI plans to include a total of eight NextGen events in its full calendar. Johl also indicated that PGTI may look to experiment with new formats in some of its competitions.
“We are aware of the evolving formats, such as LIV, and we are open to try something new this season,” Johl added.
