Developing golf in the North East next on Indian Golf Union’s agenda:  Brijinder Singh 

Indian Golf Union Office Bearers and Council Members in the 65th Annual General Meeting at the India Habitat Centre, in New Delhi, on December 11, 2025. IMAGE CREDIT: IGU

IGU conducted its 65th Annual General Meeting on Thursday in New Delhi with active participation from 15 State Golf Associations

Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi: Indian Golf Union’s (IGU) big agenda is to promote and develop golf in the North East states of India. This was announced by IGU president Brijinder Singh after the National Sports Federation’s 65th Annual General Meeting at the India Habitat Centre here on Thursday.

The AGM saw active participation from 15 affiliated State Golf Associations – Assam, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Tripura, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

The agenda for the meeting was to adopt the Annual Report of the Governing Council, confirm minutes of the previous AGM, to adopt the audited statement of accounts for the financial year 2024-25, to appoint auditors and fix their remuneration and to discuss any other subject with the permission of the chair.

“Our AGM went very well – we had our delegates from the North East, who were earlier absent and not part of mainstream golf for long time. We were very excited to have them on board. It is an uncharted territory as far as golf is concerned. We have committed to them we will be taking golf there and develop golf and make sure that children, grassroots and excellence are all achieved over there,” Brijinder Singh said.

The ‘Seven Sisters’, as the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura are called, have a plethora of British era courses based at scenic locations of the region.

“It is one of the most beautiful parts of India but one of the most neglected part also as far as golf is concerned. We will be taking our coaches and equipment over there to make sure that at least one champion comes from the North East in the near future. As far as IGU is concerned, we are rolling out a lot of programmes. We are giving the SGAs all financial support to take golf to all parts of India. We have been hearing about the British era courses a lot and our team will be visiting those and also explore a new dimension and promote tourism for that State,” he added.

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The dignitaries who attended the AGM were IGU president Brijinder Singh, Honorary Secretary Shashank Sandu, Honorary Treasurer Sanjeev Rattan, Director General Major General (Retd.) Bibhuti Bhushan apart from Governing Council members Harpuneet Singh Sandhu, Manav Jaini, Simarjeet Singh, Vandana Agarwal, Viren Ghumman, Sameer Sinha and Manav Das. Governing council member and chairman of IGU’s North East region, Nagesh Singh, attended the meeting online.

The attendees observed a one-minute silence as tribute to Late Prakash Bhandari, who served as the IGU president during 2004-05.

During the 2024-25 season, IGU conducted 32 domestic tournaments, 48 feeder tour events and sent Indian teams for 15 international tournaments including Paris Olympics 2024. The IGU also conducted the first-ever Level 3 Tournament Administrators & Referees Seminar (TARS) earlier this March in collaboration with The R&A (World Rules Governing Body) with 49 participants out of which 42 cleared the Level 3 exam. As of now, India has a record 65 referees who possess TARS Level 3 certification. During the period, the IGU attained full membership of the Confederation of Professional Golf (CPG), expanding access to global coaching standards, and successfully organized the flagship Hero Indian Open with an enhanced prize purse of $2.5 million.