00:00How has been the experience with the Hero Indian Open this time and what kind of excitement you
00:06have seen in the last three four days during this event? It's great to be back here in India
00:12playing the Hero Indian Open. We've got a long history with this event and with Hero as our
00:18title partner. We've got a new long-term deal with the Indian Golf Union for this tournament as well.
00:24So we're excited to see how we can grow this tournament over the coming three years. This
00:31week has been an exciting week certainly. We've seen some tough conditions out here for the golfers
00:36but they've enjoyed it. You know it's a great golf course. The greens are very fast this week. The
00:44wind has been a little bit sort of difficult, tricky for the guys but you can see that our
00:48defending champion knows how to play this golf course. So he's playing well again and hopefully
00:55today on the last day we'll see if he's the true champion that he is and wins again.
01:00How has been your interest in the Indian market? I'm sure it is very important for the European
01:06Tour of the DP World Tour to be coming to India and continue their relation with the Indian market
01:12and the Indian corporates, especially Hero Moto firm. Yeah, I mean the DP World Tour is the global
01:18tour, global golf tour. We go to 24 different countries so we have over 30 different nationalities
01:25playing with us. So India is one of those and remains a very important country for us to play in.
01:30So it's nice to have a long-term partnership here with the Indian Golf Union and also with the PGTI
01:39as well. We have a strategic alliance with them and we're very proud of that alliance with the PGTI
01:45and helping to grow and develop the young professionals as well as the young amateurs
01:50working with the Indian Golf Union. You brought in two challenge tour events this year, the Delhi
01:55Challenge and the Kolkata Challenge. There was a time when you had challenge tour events earlier
01:59also but there was a gap. What is the objective of bringing a challenge tour event here in India?
02:04Does it help in creating a pathway for more Indian players to go on to the DP World Tour,
02:10the main tour and play there? Yeah, so the two Hotel Planet Tour events that we've had for a number
02:17of years and we had again this year, they're really, I think, instrumental for the Indian players.
02:21You know, it's tough to come out here onto the DP World Tour once a year and compete for all of the
02:27guys. So to have two opportunities before that on the Hotel Planet Tour really gives them a springboard
02:32coming into the Hero Indian Open. They get, you know, quite a few spots in the Hotel
02:38Planner events and that creates the pathway. So if they play well there, they can then progress
02:43onto the Hotel Planet Tour and then going forwards. But we also have, through our strategic alliance
02:48with the PGTI, the leading player on their order of merit each year gets a card onto the DP World Tour.
02:54So, you know, there's lots of different pathways and that's what we're trying to create. We want to give
02:58the best players around the world the opportunity to come and play on the DP World Tour and the Hotel
03:03Planet Tour.
03:04World Tour is actually getting more into Asia, like you hosted the Singapore event. So what is the plan for
03:10expansion of the DP World Tour, making more inroads into Asia?
03:14I don't think there's plans to do more inroads into Asia. I think we're very happy with the events
03:18that we have. The Volvo China Open is a long standing event. The Porsche Singapore Classic as
03:24well here at the Hero Indian Open. And then we have a new event this year in Hainan Classic in China as
03:29well. We have, I don't know if you've seen, but we have these swings now through the global swings,
03:35the part of the season. So from basically from November when we start our season through to August,
03:39we have these number of swings and we have an Asian swing. So we want to have a certain number of
03:44events, four or five events in Asia, but we're not looking to expand beyond that. Obviously there are
03:48opportunities for all the Asian players to play on their respective local tours and then find a pathway
03:54onto our tour.
03:55If you've seen the last five years, how has the DP World Tour grown and how has been, especially the
04:00Hero Indian Open, you have seen it grow. You have been the tournament director for, tournament
04:07business officer for a long time for this event.
04:10Well, this event, you can see it's growing in prize money obviously as well.
04:15But I also feel in stature, the quality of the event here now as you walk around is much higher.
04:20It's good to see some people out here on the final day of the tournament.
04:23The weather's been a little bit hot, so not quite so conducive to getting people here,
04:27but we want to try and grow the game here. So it's not just about the professional golfers,
04:32it's also how do we get more people interested in the game. So in the future there are more
04:36spectators and more people playing the game. So that's the aim and we'll be working closely
04:40with the Indian Golf Union and the PGTI to try and achieve that.
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