Tournaments like the upcoming DGC Open in March will see a drastic change in the sanctioning partners , as there has been a stop in the co sanctioning of the tournaments like DGC Open with the Asian Tour. 

Many Indian stars like Shubhankar Sharma , Anirban Lahiri and many others who have been a part of the tournaments such as Indian Open and The Panasonic Open were always co sanctioned among India and Asia providing equal opportunities to the sportspersons on both the tours. 

 

 

The tour will also play two new US$ 300,000 Challenge Tour events at KGA, Bangalore – Duncan Taylor Black Bull Challenge (March 23-26) & The Challenge 2023 (March 28-31), as part of the new agreement between the two tours.

PGTI has recently signed an agreement with the European and US PGA Tours,   for which now the co-sanctioning of tournaments with the Asian Tour has been barred. Therefore, launched last year, the DGC Open will now be sanctioned by the Asian Tour alone. 

Further , The Indian Open which is scheduled for February this year will not include the Asian Tour as their sanctioning partner which was in the past sanctioned by the European Tour, Asian Tour and PGTI. 

 

 

Gaganjit Bhullar

 

 

The decision not to sanction any events with the Asian Tour also means that the prize money won by players on the Asian Tour won’t reflect on the PGTI Order of Merit. With just a handful of players like Shubhankar Sharma, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Shiv Kapur playing on the European circuit, this doesn’t seem a win-win situation for Indian pros whose second home has been the Asian Tour.

 

According to the sources the reason behind this announcement is clarified by the PGTI CEO himself , Mr Uttam Mundy who stated,  “We cannot sanction any Asian Tour event. The deal we signed with the DP World Tour stops us from having any partnership with the continental Tour. But our players are free to go and play in Asian Tour events as we have had a very good relationship with them. That’s a gesture of respect between the Tours.” 

 

 

Yuvraj Sandhu

Also it has been found that the Asian Tour receives big funding from the Saudi Fund, backed by LIV Golf which has been involved in a cold war with the European Tour, therefore to set apart the Asian Tour , European has signed agreements with the Indian and Korean domestic Tours. 

 

Though, it would be interesting to see how many Indians can finally participate in the DGC Open this year.