Golf season is in full swing at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) with the annual Ballantine’s Royal Premier Golf League (RPGL) getting underway on January 5, with My Kolkata as digital partner. With an early morning start at 6.45am, the course at RCGC was already buzzing before the inaugural tee, with golfers looking on with excitement to a competition that will run till March. Indrajit Bhalotia and Gaurav Ghosh cut the inauguration cake in the presence of RCGC committee members as the league entered its ninth edition.
Indrajit Bhalotia and Gaurav Ghosh cutting the inauguration cake, accompanied by Manoj Joshi, Colonel Singhal and Nirmal Agarwal
Taking the ceremonial tee, Gaurav Ghosh, the RCGC club captain, joked: “I’m just happy I got the ball off the ground!” Ghosh went on to add: “ I’m grateful that the committee members have decided not to pick up their clubs [along with me] during the tournament. This ensures neutrality but also means that focus is on ensuring the smooth functioning of what should be a very competitive tournament.”
“This is the first league of its kind and now there are several such leagues across the country. But the RPGL is still the benchmark for all other leagues. The enthusiasm for this tournament is great and the turnout is always a pleasure to see,” said Bhalotia, convenor of the RPGL.
‘It’s a tournament that golfers wait for all year round’
Gaurav Ghosh taking the ceremonial tee
Having started off in 2016, the RPGL is arguably the world’s largest single-venue amateur league. “The Royal needs to take a bow for leading the way for golf leagues across the country, for coming up with such a creative way to get more golfers involved. It’s a tournament that golfers wait for all year round,” said Brandon de Souza, who has represented India in the past and has been the tournament director for the last four editions.
Twenty teams are taking part in the RPGL this year, with 20 golfers in each team and the action spread over 12 weeks. Teams are split in two groups of 10, with each team facing the other nine teams in its group before the top four from each group make it to the quarter-finals. Teams are set up like franchises, where each team is owned by either a company or a group of individuals. Team owners get 10 players of their own choosing before buying 10 players at the auction to complete their team. Each team is allocated a notional sum of Rs 6,00,000 with which they must complete their teams.
A more level playing field in 2024
Twelve players playing on a given day have to have their handicaps add up to 120, as part of a new rule at RPGL this year
The PB Aces have bagged the trophy during the last two editions of the tournament, but the competition is expected to be stiffer this time around, with the format ensuring a more level playing field for a shot at the grand prize. “We’ve made a rule that the 12 players playing on a given day have to have their handicaps add up to 120. This made for a strategic element to look out for during the auction, because we didn’t want all the best players going to one team,” said Nirmal Agarwal, co-convenor of the RPGL.
The RCGC courses will host the tournament on Fridays and Saturdays, with each day featuring five matches with six sets each. Each match will require the teams to put up 12 players respectively, with two players from each team involved in a set. “Till last year, we held the tournament on Saturdays and Sundays, but we needed to keep a day when members who aren’t playing on a given day could use the courses. Since most golfers prefer playing on the weekends, we’ve kept Sundays free, ”said Manoj Joshi, a tournament committee member who will be around the courses during the tournament but will not be teeing off himself.
RPGL scores can now be tracked on an app from any corner of the world
The RPGL can be followed from any part of the world thanks to a well-maintained app, RPGL 2024, where one player from each set takes up the responsibility to update the scores after each hole. With many of the best golfers in Kolkata featuring in the tournament, competitiveness as well as camaraderie are in full flow at the RCGC. On the first day of action, Manish Goenka, the owner of team Emami, came off a loss in his set but had his eyes on the team’s performance in the long run: “We’ve been taking part since the inception of the tournament. We were leading by four after 14, but couldn’t hold on to the lead. It’s not the best way to start the tournament, but there’s a lot of exciting golf to look forward to over the next two months,” said Goenka.
