IGPL promoters kept changing goal post: PGTI chief executive Amandeep Johl | Pune News - The Times of India

Pune: The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) would be launching its own league, the body's chief executive officer and former player Amandeep Johl said on Thursday."Yes, we are starting a league in February. It is in the planning stage. We are almost signing up with the title partner," Johl said on the sidelines of the Poona Club Open."The league will be a separate entity with its own commissioner, but it will be under the aegis of PGTI. The best part of the league is, it would be only for professionals, no amateurs," he added.The launch of the league comes in response to a similar initiative announced by rival entity IGPL, which had kicked off a circuit of its own last month after negotiations failed between the latter's promoters and PGTI said.For the first time, Johl spelt out the reasons as to why the two entities -- with the latter having former PGTI chief Uttam Singh Mundy as its CEO -- couldn't come to an understanding.Johl said that apart from a few differences at the fundamental level, he found "certain demands" from IGPL promoters to be "unreasonable"."First of all, I was very happy that somebody new is bringing in the money. There's no two ways about it. Mr. Vijay Reddy is a Hyderabad-based businessman. He had a vision that 'I want to do golf in India'. He's the one who's bankrolling this initiative. "He had first bought a few league teams in Chandigarh, Delhi, DLF, because he loved the game. So, we want people like this. This IGPL thing started during the tenure of Mr. Mundy, he was the (then) CEO (of PGTI). But the negotiations did not fructify for various reasons," he said."They said, 'we only want 32 players'. We said you can't be choosing the players, the players should be chosen by us, or you have an open auction, or the PGTI Order of Merit be used."And certain demands of theirs were unreasonable when I took over as CEO. They said we will even rename the (PGTI) Tour (as) IGPL Tour. When they found that certain things were not being agreed upon, they kept changing the goal post."I said, 'no, it's not on the money only. The name cannot be diluted for a very small amount of money. If you want to change the name, like the European Tour (changed to DP World Tour), I said, the amount of compensation that you would give to the name has to be a totally different conversation'."Johl said that lack of clarity on IGPL promoters' "source of the funding" was another key factor that proved to be an impediment."The critical point is that Bharat Golf is a private limited company instituted in 2024 ... We don't know the source of the funding," he said."IGPL is a brand of this private limited company. We presume it is Vijay Reddy who's pumping in the money. How he's funding it, we don't know. They will probably be filing their returns on Oct 31."So there is a private limited company with no background, they want to come and say 'we have launched a brand called IGPL, and we want to take over this organisation (PGTI)'. It is like one private company taking over the BCCI."LIV has made it clear that PIF (Public Investment Fund) is funding it. There is clarity. Here there is no clarity."So, that was the unreasonable bit. Just by throwing money and saying, 'Okay, I control everything', was a little unreasonable."Another core issue at the heart of disagreement, according to Johl, was the format of the tour. The IGPL Tour, launched in September, has a smaller field of mixed gender, with no cuts and played over 54 holes.The format assures every player a minimum guaranteed prize money. However, the entry is based on invitation, although a qualifying school for 2026 season in on the anvil."Their model of the tour is something which I said, 'it's a very nice, refreshing change. You can have five, seven tournaments where you (can have) guaranteed prize money. But if I do guaranteed prize money for all of the tour, my players will become (incompetent) ... Let them earn their livelihood," Johl said."What is IGPL doing? They're giving them freebies. Whether you play well or you don't play well, we will put a cheque in your bank account. There is zero pressure."Why a guy like Jon Rahm, who Jack Nicklaus said was the best player after Tiger Woods, can't finish in the top 10 in a major? Because he's gotten so used to zero pressure."So, they are not going to be my future champions. They are not going to become Olympians, they are not going to become my Asian Games medal winners."I want to give them hard-core competition. I want to bring in players from South Africa, Thailand, Japan, Korea, so that they will learn."Johl didn't find it convincing that guaranteed prize money meant financial security for the player."Why should I give a player security? He should be scared that he's going to lose his job if he doesn't perform, if he doesn't work hard. I'm going to make champions," he said."Here they are making a 15-year-old, a 17-year-old kid a pro. They should have been earning medals for India."Did he resent the popularity of the new tour or his players joining it?"I have got no resentment. I'm only trying to say one thing. PGTI is an organization, it is not Kapil Dev or Amandeep Johl or Uttam Singh Mundy or Gautam Thapar," he said, "an organisation will continue, it is of the players. Private concerns are on the whims and fancies of individuals."Tomorrow, (if) Mr. Vijay Reddy changes his mind, what is going to happen to all these players? If he or his partners think there is no ROI, he shuts shop and goes, what is going to happen to these 35 or 50 players?"Has he put a fund aside and said, 'this is going to continue for the next 30 years', has he done that?"My only issue is that you don't spoil the future of young golfers ... by getting them to file cases, funding them to do legal cases against PGTI. That is not in good taste."They always say, 'PGTI has been very unfair. They are not allowing us to play PGTI and IGPL'. I'm like, are you being fair to your fellow players?"So it is not about Amandeep (Johl) and Kapil Dev versus those players. It is about these players versus their own brethren."