Special to the Reporter
Do we think of Indians as athletes? Do we think golf? Sometimes. For the first time, 10 top, world-ranked golf professionals from India are on an 18-city, 45-day Indo-American Professional Golf Association (IAPGA) tour across the United States.
Indian Men’s Golf Club (IMGC) Seattle in collaboration with IAPGA hosted a first of its kind pro-am tournament last weekend at the Golf Club at Redmond Ridge. The tournament brought the local Indian and American golfing community together to enhance their golfing skills and enjoy the game. The event was also a unique way for the locals to celebrate India’s Independence Day in Seattle.
The IAPGA, the nonprofit umbrella network of golf leagues across the U.S. is leading the tour. With the mission of meeting Indian American golfers in the U.S., the golf professionals are part of golf tournaments as well as meet and greet events along the way. The goals are to encourage the culture of golf amongst the Indian communities, raise awareness of the IAPGA mission.
IMGC is a Redmond-based men’s golf club partnering with IAPGA as its Seattle chapter and organized the IMGC Seattle Pro-Am 2015. IMGC is formed with an objective of bringing the Indian and American community together over the great game of golf. IMGC Seattle Pro-Am 2015 being the signature event, IMGC will support other local nonprofits in the coming months for golfing tournament events in the area apart from casual golf weekend games.
Sawan Deswal, who works at Microsoft in Redmond and started IMGC with a team of local friends said, “While IAPGA is set up to support self-funded golfers in India to give them exposure to play in the U.S. and help them qualify for PGA, these pros give back to the local communities who support them, by giving free golf clinics and organizing pro-am tournaments.
“The tournament will bring the South Asian Indian and American community together and drive cross-culture diversity with the amazing game of golf.”
The Indian golf professionals also conducted multiple free golf clinics at golf clubs in Redmond. The clinics attracted hundreds of local kids and adults who took some great golfing tips and techniques from the pros.
The event was supported by Microsoft Band, a health and wellness device by Microsoft worn on the wrist that also includes golf GPS and tracking capabilities; Subeer D. Manhas, a local financial services adviser; Puetz Golf, a local golf-store; Positive Ally, an after-school youth enrichment program; and OkiGolf, a network for golf clubs in Seattle.
The golf professionals on the tour were invited on the basis of their world-wide ranking and their availability of time to present themselves on a world stage. Encouraging them along are notables in the sport like PGA winner Arjun Atwal, who has agreed to join the tour where he can. The Indian golfers are: Ajeetesh Sandhu, Abhijeet Chada, Sujjan Singh, Abhishek Jha, Shubhankar Sharma, Rahul Bajaj, Amardip Malik, Angad Cheema, Shivam Tibrewal and Gurbaaz Mann (manager).
“It’s pretty exciting! Arjun has agreed to join us and I am speaking to Daniel Chopra as well,” said Gurbaaz Mann, one of the managers and the driving force behind the idea to create the IAPGA. Having traveled the U.S., talking to fellow golf players in every city he could manage, Mann has had this dream for seven years. “We know there is a huge network. It is just a matter of connecting.”
The connection between American-Indians who share the love of golf has become a strong network. The tour is being mainly crowd-funded by individuals who believe in creating the IAPGA and the hope of seeing one of the golf professionals eventually play the PGA Tour or Web.com Tour. Japan, Korea and other Asian nations take enough pride in their athletes to promote them worldwide. So far, Indian athletes have not met with such support from the Indian government so the grassroots effort in the U.S. is what is moving along the dream of seeing Indian players on the world stage.
To support the cause, visit: http://theiapga.org/contributions/contribute-using-paypal
