Toyota IGU NHS National Club Challenge to involve 5000 golfers and 25 clubs

New Delhi, October 18: Indian Golf Union announced that the inaugural edition of the Toyota IGU NHS National Club Challenge will involve around 5000 golfers from 25 key clubs across the country.

The tournament which will kick off in October and conclude in April with the National Finals will be conducted in three stages. In Stage one, each of the 25 competing clubs will conduct an 18 hole qualifying tournament with the club members competing in five different handicap categories so that all members of the club get an opportunity to compete for a spot on the club team. 

The five handicap categories are 0-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15-19 and 20-24. The individual winner in each handicap category will automatically be selected to represent the club team while the 6th team member and captain will be nominated by the club.

The teams thus selected go to the 2nd stage which is the Zonal Finals in four zones – North, South, East and West. At the 18 hole Zonal finals, the best five 18 hole total stableford scores of the six players of each club team will make the team score and the top two teams from each of four Zonal Finals will qualify for the 3rd stage – the National Finals. 

The first stage kicks off from October 20 at Noida Golf Club, Noida. This is the first round of the club qualifier event and Noida GC had a pre qualifying round from which 120 club members qualified to compete in the club team selection round.

The Toyota IGU NHS National Club Challenge gives an opportunity to all club members at 25 major golf clubs across the country to represent their clubs as teams at a national level and is considered a great privilege and honour among the amateur club golfers across India. The ultimate prize is to be crowned the IGU National Club Champion of the year!

The Club qualifiers, Zonal Finals and National Finals will be played in individual Stableford off 3/4th handicap allowance.

Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director & COO, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “We have had a long and fruitful association with Indian golf over the past five years. The Toyota IGU NHS National Club Challenge is poised to attract thousands of keen golfers to participate in multiple cities across India and we are happy to sponsor it. This also gives us a good opportunity to target aspiring buyers of Toyota cars.”

Raian Irani, Vice President IGU, said, “It’s my pleasure to announce the inaugural edition of Toyota IGU National Club Challenge. There is nothing as exciting for a club golfer than to win a place on his club team and go on to compete for glory against other club teams at a zonal and a national level. This tournament will incentivise club golfers to play hard and improve their game in order to have a chance to be selected to represent the club the next year. We are grateful for the various clubs for their enthusiastic support and wish we could have accommodated more club teams but given the logistic limitations, we have restricted the first edition to 25 clubs. Even then we understand between the clubs, we expect some 5000 golfers to be competing this year.”

Rishi Narain, CEO & MD, RN Golf Management, who conceived and promote the tournament said, “The Toyota IGU National Club Challenge is a very popular format and we have already received great feedback from club members who want to participate. We thank Toyota for its ongoing association with the sport and delighted to partner with IGU to take this tournament to the next level. This annual tournament will create a healthy club rivalry within towns and across zones and we hope more youngsters and club members will be motivated to improve the quality of their games. We may also discover some future stars in the expert handicap categories and expect some top ranked national players to be turning out for their club teams also.”

Press release