Jaypee Greens
Jaypee Greens GC in Greater Noida on the outskirts of Delhi will be the host venue for the inaugural India Legends Championship hosted by Jeev Milkha Singh from 29th August to 1st September. The DP World Tour has previously held the Avantha Masters at Jaypee Greens, a Greg Norman designed course, in 2013.
Jeev Milkha Singh
Jeev Milkha Singh has won four DP World Tour titles and is one of the leading professional golfers to have emerged from India. Speaking about the announcement and his role as host he said: “I am really excited to have the first senior golfing event, especially a Legends Tour tournament, in India with all the top names coming playing.
“It’s going to be a big boost to Indian golf. It is really special for me, and I’m really excited that I’m going to be hosting and playing this event at Jaypee Greens.
“Playing in front of my home crowd is a treat for me and hopefully for the fans out there too. Hopefully these guys can come and see the players, who’ve they’ve seen on tv, playing right in front of them. It’s a Greg Norman designed golf course, an open golf course with a lot of water. It’s a long golf course and the ball is not going to run too much. You’re going to need to fly it to the flags, with good distance control.
“Golf is the fastest growing sport in our country today. There are a lot of good young players coming out – we have a very good junior program, a very good professional tour. The way things are going, we are going to see a lot more professional golfers coming out of India who are going to be playing on the world stage and making the country proud.”
Jyoti Randhawa
Jyoti Randhawa is a “rookie” on the Legends Tour this season, having won the Final Stage of Q-school and is an eight-time winner on the Asian Tour. This new tournament has him thrilled at what lies ahead next month: “It’s awesome. Jeev and I just turned 50 a couple of years back, so playing on Legends Tour and to have one of their events at home, that’s great for us.
“It makes you focus more; you want to perform better. There are going to be a lot of people cheering us on, it’s Indian soil and they want an Indian to win there! That gives us a little impetuous to play better because it is a good energy, a good environment – people are rooting for you.
“I think anytime you have a tournament in India and it’s an international event then there’s a lot of hype about it. It’s good to go back and play, it’s part of an all-round development of golf in India. and is good for junior golf as well. Golf is really picking up in India. We’ve got some good players now and new golf courses with a lot of youngsters playing on those golf courses.”
Phil Harrison, Legends Tour CEO
The corporate support for this event in India has helped to ensure its addition to the 2024 schedule and leaves Legends Tour CEO Phil Harrison a proud man: “It’s massive, because India is such a large country. For the Legends Tour, there is just a great opportunity. Delhi’s an iconic international, a wonderful city and to have a first tournament in Delhi is great.
“One of our mission statements is to grow the game, and this is why we’re going global, going to Africa, to Asia, and India is a big part of that for us. There is a growing part of the demographic developing in India that are taking up golf and with our profile, our players, it is a great fit.
“India is an economic powerhouse and the timing for us to go there is great, hosting a tournament and building on other projects to help grow the game. We want to help improve participation in golf in India and assist stakeholders in the creation of more facilities for the Indian public and tourists to enjoy.
“After Covid, we only had 8 or 9 events which were mainly based in Europe apart from our MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius. But now, we’re in Asia, Mexico, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe – it’s just fantastic and says a lot about the mission to make our brand global. We’re creating more playing opportunities alongside our Legends Tour professionals than ever before, our media profile is rising, and we are strengthening our corporate engagement and our destination marketing for tourism too.”
Sporting spectacle
Spectators can watch the Legends in action at Jaypee Greens for free and the tournament is set to draw in many sporting fans, not least to see Milkha Singh and Randhawa. There will be plenty of activities around the course too for the community, especially for children getting into golf with help from the Indian Golf Union, while there will also be a Saturday night fashion show from Athletic Drive.
On course, the event week with feature a Championship Pro-Am on the Thursday, while Legends Experience members will compete on Friday and Saturday alongside the professionals. The tournament for the Legends Tour professionals will run from Friday to Sunday.
Hear from Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa here:
