IGPL, Paes come together to take golf to schools

With 18 Grand Slam titles behind him, Leander Paes is now hoping to produce more Olympic champions across sports, including golf.

The tennis legend has partnered with the Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) in the Golf Growth Initiative, a programme to take golf to schools and interiors of the country and develop the next generation of Indian golfers, in association with the Indian Golf Union (IGU), the Professional Golfers’ Association of India (PGAI) and The Golf Foundation (TGF).

His eventual aim, Paes said, was to build 10 academies for different sports throughout the country in the next 10 years.

“I have the Flying Man Academy, spread across 250 acres in Bhubaneswar. It has 100,000 kids divided into 40,000 tribal, 40,000 paid Indian kids and 20,000 international kids from 70 countries. We play 16 sports.

“Through these 16 sports, we empower the youth not just at the grassroots but also at the top of the pyramid. I want to develop Olympic champions. My focus in golf is to create academies, driving ranges, golf courses, design new-age training methods and take the game to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and villages,” Paes said.

The programme will bring together some of the biggest names in Indian golf with the likes of Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar, S.S.P. Chawrasia and Gaurav Ghei acting as mentors. The six, interestingly, will also be part of the six franchises in the golf league that the IGPL plans to launch in March with auctions for the same likely to be in the middle of February.

The IGPL also announced a partnership with TGF to drive grassroots scouting and the establishment of world-class training facilities in Odisha, Gurugram and Andhra Pradesh starting this year.