The Indian Masters was a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

tournament on the European and Asian Tours, that was played in February 2008. The tournament was introduced as part of the continuing globalisation of the European Tour, making India the 37th territory to stage a European Tour event, and increasing to twelve the number of tournaments played in Asia as of the 2008 season. The tournament was initially only sanctioned by the European Tour and the Indian Golf Union, the announcement of which drew sharp criticism from both

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf professional golf tours, tour in Asia except for Japan (which has its own Japan Golf Tour). It is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on ...

chairman

Kyi Hla Han Kyi Hla Han (, ; 13 February 1961 – 19 February 2022) was a professional golfer from Myanmar who served as executive chairman of the Asian Tour. Professional career Han turned professional in 1980. He recorded his first professional wins in 1 ...

and the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), with both organisations claiming that the European Tour had breached

International Federation of PGA Tours Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organized into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women; most are based in a specific geographical region, although some to ...

protocols by not making advance arrangements with them for co-sanctioning of an event to be staged in their region. The Indian Golf Union issued a statement a few days after the tournament was announced stating that the European Tour had approached it, and was willing to offer 20 invitations to Indian domestic players through the PGTI. The dispute was eventually settled, and the Asian Tour agreed terms to co-sanction the tournament in advance of its 2008 debut. The 2008 prize fund was

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

2.5 million, which is the largest ever offered at a golf tournament in India, and also one of the largest in Asia, but slightly below the overall average on the European Tour. The promoters are Golf in Dubai, who are also responsible for the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour and the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour. Early in December 2008, organisers announced that due to financial problems with sponsors stemming from the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, and security concerns following the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also referred to as 26/11 attacks, were a series of coordinated Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist o ...

, the 2009 event would be cancelled. The long-established Indian Open is also an Asian Tour event, and beginning in 2015 will be co-sanctioned by the European Tour.

Winners

Notes

References

External links

Coverage on the European Tour's official site
{{Former European Tour Events Golf tournaments in India Former Asian Tour events Former European Tour events Defunct sports competitions in India

Winners

See also

Notes

References

External links