Kapil Dev, President, PGTI (centre) and Amandeep Johl, CEO, PGTI (left) welcome Amitabh Kant (right) as a Governing Body Member of the PGTI
The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) has created a newly formed Advisory Board with heavyweight names from India’s policy and global corporate worlds. Former NITI Aayog CEO and India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has joined the PGTI Governing Body, while global business leaders based in California, USA, Shantanu Narayen (CEO, Adobe Inc.), Nikesh Arora (CEO & Chairman, Palo Alto Networks) and Pradeep S Bakshi (Managing Partner & CEO, Trantor) have signed on as advisors.
PGTI President Kapil Dev hailed their arrival as “a significant step forward” in expanding the tour’s reach and creating new opportunities for Indian professionals. Kant, a passionate golfer himself, brings decades of strategic policy experience and global perspective to the role. Ajeetesh Sandhu, one of India’s leading touring pros, also joins the Advisory Body.
Parallels with the PGA Tour
The move echoes the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council (PAC) and Policy Board, where well known Private Equity executives, lawyers and Strategic business advisors join legends like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to help shape the Tour’s key commercial and strategic decisions. By contrast, the PGTI’s new advisory group leans heavily on America based corporate leaders and a celebrated bureaucrat, with two-time international winner Ajeetesh Sandhu the lone player voice on the Advisory Board.
For now, PGTI gains invaluable access to top Indian government officials and corporate names recognised by bodies such as the European DP World Tour, which has had a partnership with PGTI for the past three years. But as things unfold, the Tour, which is “owned” by the pro players, will watch to see how the newly formed advisory board serves its interest. A balance between opinion leading players and experienced management professionals and investors can be useful to balance real business insight with on-course experience—an approach that has helped the PGA Tour strengthen its commercial future in recent years.