Golf World Rankings of Indians

[jayakris]

Thanks Prem. That explains why I felt Anirban's ranking looked low. I thought I had seen him at around top-50 earlier, but wasn't sure.

He was well outside the top 100 for many years prior. He has finally looked better this season.

And he cashed out bigtime. Like no other Indian sportsman has ever, I guess.

[Sin Hombre]

He was well outside the top 100 for many years prior. He has finally looked better this season.

And he cashed out bigtime. Like no other Indian sportsman has ever, I guess.

Not counting the cricketers in Sachin, Dhoni and Kohli.

[jayakris]

^^^ That sport doesn't count. Irrelevant. Just Indians giving money to their Gods. Anirban stole money from foreigners, no?

[usaindia]

Thanks Prem. That explains why I felt Anirban's ranking looked low. I thought I had seen him at around top-50 earlier, but wasn't sure.

He was well outside the top 100 for many years prior. He has finally looked better this season.

And he cashed out bigtime. Like no other Indian sportsman has ever, I guess.

Anirban career earnings are over $9 milion in PGA and easily 4 million or more on livgolf ,not including money he received for joining liv tour
https://www.todays-golfer.com/news-and- ... ingstodate

[arjun2761]

It will be interesting what will happen to the LIV tour if Trump somehow flames out as a presidential candidate (or just kicks the bucket). Seeing how many LIV events are on Trump courses, it's primary value to the Saudi's is likely courting Trump (as a legal bribe in effect). The tour has almost no coverage or sponsorships and very little revenues, so it is completely losing money and commercial success doesn't appear to be its goal.

[sameerph]

I do not understand economics of golf as a whole. How are they able to pay so much apparently to even top 400-500 golfers in the world. Much more than what Tennis players are getting especially so those below top 100 or even those in top 100. Each one has it's opinion, but for most I think golf is not as much a spectator sport as Tennis or many other sports. Still golf pays more to it's players. From where does it get that money from ?

[jayakris]

^^^ I always thought it is because it is actually a bigger spectator sport. Unlike tennis, where a maximum of a few thousand people pack into a stadium, golf actually gets a lot more people who are all around the 18 long courses. Plus, I think the ticket rates are higher because golf fans probably are a bit richer than tennis fans, and there would be enough to show up even at higher prices. Maybe?? I don't know, but this was my theory all along.

It is a crime, the money these golfers make ... It makes me mad, thinking of the hardworking tennis players who hardly make enough to survive.

[arjun2761]

I'm not sure that gate revenues for golf is the key driver for their bigger purses. The TV revenues are likely higher as the bigger networks give more airtime to golf than tennis at least in the US.

The biggest reason for more money in golf is that it is much more popular among executives and hence corporate sponsors open their purses to golf a lot more than tennis. Most golf tournaments also generally have a pro-am day where these executives and their clients often play a round with some of the more famous pros.

In the case of LIV golf, it is almost entirely funded by the sovereign wealth fund of the Saudi government.

[jayakris]

^^^ Good points, Arjun. Have to agree. Yes, TV time must be the reason (and not more spectators like I was guessing) for the Golf tournaments' having more money to offer. The corporate support also must be more as it is easier to sell to the corporate decision-makers. It is n the weekend and they can spend a lot of time seeing a lot of players who make the cut play, and mix with them if you are sponsor, whereas the tennis tournament just have 3 or 4 top players left and only 5 or 6 hours of tennis to watch too. They can't even talk during tennis matches with other corporate contacts. No walking around, chatting and drinking complementary wine over 10-12 hours over a couple of days and all that. Pro-Am day is an even bigger sell. It all gives Golf a lot of advantages.

[Sin Hombre]

It is not just TV. It is also corporate sponsorships. Golf = rich men in the western world's favourite sport.

60% TV rights, 40% corporate sponsorships.

[usaindia]

https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-to ... nify-golf/

[Vee]

Hi all,

Here are the top 3 Indians in the World Golf Ranking for Men as published on September 24, 2023 (Previous week's rankings in parentheses):

148 Anirban Lahiri (142)
160 Shubhankar Sharma (162)
332 Gaganjeet Bhullar (359)

Interestingly, prajgolf posted the rankings of Indian men golfers on December 24, 2018, and these were the same 3 golfers from India on top back then (though in a different order - see below their rankings summarized from prajgolf's post from that date). I think it's about time that after almost 5 years, we have some new golfers from India perform consistently at the top levels of the game and climb up the world rankings!

World rankings from December 24, 2018 (from prajgolf's post):
116 Shubhankar Sharma
145 Gaganjeet Bhullar
147 Anirban Lahiri

Of the people of Indian origin/ancestry, I also follow the below golfers regularly, and their current rankings are:

29 Sahith Theegala, USA (29)
67 Aaron Rai, England (67)
105 Akshay Bhatia, USA (105)

BTW, big thanks to prajgolf for his informative posts over the years about Indian golf!

[Kumar]

Bee, Welcome to the sports-india forum. We have been following golf for 20+ years starting with Jeev Milka Singh . The men’s golf has recently plateaued with none of the top golfers taking the next step.

I think Akshay Bhatia will go into become a biggest star in the golf world.

[arjun2761]

Also worth noting that Anirban is underranked as his LIV golf results aren’t counted in the world rankings. He is currently 7th in the LIV golf money list with over $10MM won this season, so is easily playing at a top 50 or even top 30 level if his LIV events were counted the same as PGA tour events.

[Vee]

Bee, Welcome to the sports-india forum. We have been following golf for 20+ years starting with Jeev Milka Singh . The men’s golf has recently plateaued with none of the top golfers taking the next step.

I think Akshay Bhatia will go into become a biggest star in the golf world.

Thanks, Kumar.

I have been following Jeev for a long time as well! Jeev and Jyoti Randhawa were our torch bearers for a long time, and then came Shiv Kapur Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma. They have all done well and have kept our interest alive in the sport.

I still remember a time when I was generally scanning through the scores at some golf tournament a few decades ago to see if there was any Indian golfer on the international scene, and to my utter surprise I did find an Indian name - Vijay Singh! I have been following Vijay's progress ever since (he is technically a Fijian), and because of him, my interest in golf kept going up!

Agree with you that Akshay has tremendous potential to become one of the golfing greats! And now that Sahith has also won a tournament on the PGA Tour, he too should win many more and should get into the Top-10 in world ranking. Only time will tell