Standard of Delhi Golf Club League is getting better with mentorship programme, says organiser

New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS) The Delhi Golf Club League's (DGCL) organising committee member Digraj Singh feels that the mentorship programme started by the club has played a major role in raising the standards of the tournament which entered its fourth edition on Thursday.

Digraj elaborated on the journey of the tournament over the years and the benefit of it for the youngsters and other members of the club.

"The idea why we started the league was to promote talent and the second was to increase the camaraderie and social interaction between club members. The club is a cohesive unit and I was finding that not many people are meeting each other even though they're members of the club. The second was talent development. There is such high-quality participation that's happening. When a youngster plays with a quality player under pressure conditions, that's when you really learn. A very interesting element of the event is the mentorship program," he told IANS while detailing the objectives of the DGCL.

"When we started this league during a pandemic, the thinking was how does everybody benefit from it. One suggestion that came up was to encourage every team to hire one professional golfer or teacher as a mentor. Thereby what happens is, that each team is under a mentor for a duration of two-and-half to three months. The mentorship is very unique, these are our country's top golfers, players like Gaurav Ghei, Ajai Gupta, Amandeep Johl and Chiragh Kumar - they're all winners in the Asian circuit and big-time players.

"The kind of knowledge sharing that's happening through the mentorship programme which is part of the league, the standards are getting better. More people are going to practise nowadays. As a result, the overall culture of improvement is getting more and more visible," he added.

The 24 competing teams comprise 19 players each taking the total field to 456 players from all age groups and categories competing on an even playing field. The field is inclusive with each team comprising of juniors, ladies, seniors and regular players. The recently modified handicap system will ensure that all teams have an equal chance to win.

The league will be played on a Four-ball Better Ball Matchplay format and over two stages – a round-robin stage followed by a knock-out stage. During each playoff match between two teams in the round-robin stage, each team will field 6 pairs (12 players). One pair from each team will play against a pair from the other team in a four-ball better ball Matchplay format with all the players playing off 90% of their original handicaps. The teams will get points for their wins. The 24 teams have been divided into 4 groups.

Digraj further explained on tournament's Matchplay format saying that it pushes for more aggressive golf. "On every hole that we play, the better score of the two players is compared with the better score of the opponent and whichever is better wins. When they'll play 18 holes then every hole is a competition. A format like Matchplay means everybody has to play a lot more aggressive golf. In Strokeplay golf, people play a lot of percentage golf," he said.

The inaugural season of the DGCL witnessed 18 teams in 2021 while 20 teams competed in the 2022 edition of the league and 22 teams in the 2023 edition. This year, the number has gone up to 22 with the addition of Sudhir Power and Victorious Choice.

However, the organisers claimed that the number of teams will not be increased and the participating players in each team will expand.

"It creates an opportunity for more members to play and it also allows more team owners to get associated with the league. The entry points to the game are much more affordable and that's the beauty of the league format. It allows a lot of people to come in at smaller bites and the overall package in that case becomes very rewarding for the club," he said.

"By increasing the teams, more members are getting to play, more quality people are getting associated in terms of sponsorships, team owners, etc. But now the club has taken a stand that we will not take more than 24. So, perhaps next season, the number of players in the team will go from 19 to 22," Digraj said.

There is also a special tournament being held for the 80 players who have missed out on the main event.

When asked about the enthusiasm of the players, Digraj added, "I've had people come and say, 'This is the best thing that's happened to Delhi Golf Club'. It's the most inclusive tournament - in a team it is mandatory to take ladies, take players who're above 70 years of age, juniors, in any case, are encouraged but juniors are not mandatory and we've capped two juniors in each team."

After the round-robin stage, during which the teams from one group will compete against each other, the top two teams from each group will qualify for the knock-out stage starting with the quarter-finals. In the knock-out stage, the matches between two teams will be contested by seven pairs (14 players). The finals will be played on October 26.

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