Franchises, squads announced for IGPL

The squad and franchise announcement for the AM Green India Golf Premier League saw the organisers increasing the number of events from 11 to 15 for the season, including five overseas, although the schedule and other logistics are yet to be finalised.

The format means the golfers will be playing at both the team and individual level simultaneously through the year. Each team has four players competing for individual prizes from a pool of ₹1.5 crore at every event while also representing their team.

The two best scores from each team every day will count towards the team placings. Points will be accumulated over the season with the top three at the end of the year rewarded.

“Last year we had 11 events because we had less time. This year, we have gone up to 15 events, to be held through the year, with 10 at home and five overseas.

“The decision was taken to also give enough time to our players to try and concentrate on events outside India on the higher tours — International Series, Asian Tour and others — and probably try and participate in Qualifying Schools for the European Tour or elsewhere,” IGPL CEO Uttam Singh Mundy explained.

However, not all top players on the IGPL tour have signed up for the league as well with veteran Gaurav Ghei, Shiv Kapur and Gaganjeet Bhullar being the only marquee names. The first three international venues will be in Mauritius, South Africa and Congo later this month.

“There is a lot of young talent out there that needs exposure and eventually, in the next 5-10 years, they will get there internationally,” said co-founder and former cricketer Yuvraj Singh.

The squads: Mumbai: Aman Raj, Udayan Mane, Aadil Bedi, Tushar Pannu. Goa: Varun Chopra, Saarthak Chhibber, Aalaap I.L., Kanav Chauhan.

Kolkata: Varun Parikh, Sukhman Singh, Syed Saqib Ahmed, Kartik Sharma. Vizag: Manav Shah, Dharma M, Milind Soni, Danish Verma.

Bengaluru: Veer Ganapathy, Sunhit Bishnoi, Trishul Chinnappa, Sudhir Sharma. Gurugram: Pukhraj Singh Gill, Shaurya Binu, Shat Mishra, Digraj Singh Gill.

Punjab: Karandeep Kochhar, Kapil Kumar, Harendra Gupta, C. Muniyappa. Hyderabad: Sachin Baisoya, Raghav Chugh, Arjun Bhatti, Ranjit Singh.

Delhi: Shiv Kapur, Aryan Roopa Anand, Chiragh Kumar, Gaurav Ghei. Chennai: Gaganjeet Bhullar, Yashas Chandra M.S., Samarth Dwivedi, Harshjeet Singh Sethie.