New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Veteran Indian golfer Shiv Kapur believes the upcoming Indian Golf Premier League (IGPL) will be a valuable learning platform for young players, offering them a rare opportunity to compete alongside legends of the game.

The IGPL, a city-based franchise tournament with six mixed-gender teams, is set to take place over four weeks between January and February in 2026. The league will feature a unique format that brings together professional male and female golfers along with leading amateurs in a fresh and competitive setup.

“I think the leagues in India are bigger than leagues anywhere else in the world. And I think from a general sporting audience, everyone recognises what being part of a team means. So I think for the youngsters, you know, for them to go around and tell everyone, you know, I’m part of the Delhi team. I’m part of the Mumbai team,” said Kapur, replying to an IANS query during a media interaction.

Kapur, a three-time winner on the Asian Tour, cited the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) example of grooming young cricketing talents in the country and building a supply pipeline for the national team.

“It’s something cool, right? And I saw that with some of the younger IPL guys, you know, there’s a feeling of pride. And also, you know, you’re playing against the best in the country. You’re playing against what we call the legends of the game.

“And that’s what, again, when I keep saying IPL, why it’s been so successful is Virat Kohli’s been able to groom the next generation of players for Bangalore, MS Dhoni for Chennai. And I think that’s kind of the thing where they learn how, you know, how do the legends of the game absorb pressure? What do they do in those situations? And I think that’s a big learning where you’re inside the ropes. With some of the best in the game that have played the game in your country and to be able to learn from that in a real-time match setting,” he added.

Adding to it, Gaurav Ghei, who was also present in the virtual interaction along with SSP Chawrasia, said the youngsters will get used to the pressure of playing for a team.

“And also the pressures are different, you know, when you’re playing for yourself, win, lose whatever you’ve got yourself to blame. But, you know, when you’re playing for a team, I think the pressure is a lot more. I mean, I can just picture a Karthik Singh coming down the last hole of a, you know, final with somebody like a Gaganjeet Bhullar.

“It’ll be just fantastic to watch, you know, how both of them handle that. And like Shiv said, it’ll be a learning for both of them. So I think we’ll have a lot of exciting games and matches and it’ll be fantastic experience for all of us,” Ghei said.

Further, to create an overall impact on the ecosystem and to funnel rising talent into the league, IGPL tour will be played across different cities in the build-up to the first edition of the league between September and December.

–IANS

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