The Asian Development Tour (ADT), the developmental tour of the Asian Tour, shows a stark contrast in performance between Indian and Thai players. Currently, only three Indian players—Rahil Gangjee (1st), Aman Raj (23rd), and Sunhit Bishnoi (40th)—are ranked in the top 40 of the season long ADT rankings. In comparison, there are 20 Thai players in the top 40, a telling statistic about the strength of Thailand’s emerging golf talent.
While India’s domestic Professional Golf Tour (PGTI) hosts 24 events in 2024 with an average prize fund of INR 1 crore (around US$110,000), Thailand’s domestic pro tour – The All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT) features 14 events with an average prize purse of US$90,000. Despite the higher number of events in India, the depth of talent and performance from Thailand on the international stage is becoming increasingly evident.
At the ADT’s US$125,000 Indonesia Pro-Am last week, from India, only Pukhraj Singh Gill, 27, from Ludhiana, and 23-year-old Sunhit Bishnoi from Gurgaon were able to deliver strong performances, finishing tied for 12th with matching scores of 9-under 204.
Saptak Talwar was the next best Indian at 26th while ADT No. 1 Rahil Gangjee, the veteran from Kolkata, finished 34th.
Several Indian pros missed the cut, including Khalin Joshi (71-71), Gaurav P. Singh (68-76), Aman Raj (77-68), Arjun Prasad (69-76), and Arjun Sharma (75-73).
Photo – PGTI