Golf needs something new: Indian golfer Shiv Kapur speaks to Gulf News

Gulf News

Dubai and UAE resident Shiv Kapur is an Indian professional golfer.  Following a successful amateur career, winning the Indian and Malaysian Amateur Opens in 2000 and an individual gold medal at the 2002 Asian Games, Shiv turned professional in 2004.  In his second season on the Asian Tour he won the season ending Volvo Masters of Asia and finished the year fourth on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.  He joined the European Tour in 2007, having earned enough as an affiliate member in 2006 to qualify for his playing privileges in Europe.  Shiv now calls Dubai home with his family and is an Ambassador for the EAGL Series.   Read the full story here:   See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km

Transcript

00:00Amateur golf is very very important and I think that sort of gets overlooked a lot

00:11Golf needs something new golf needs a new format, you know in cricket when they started t20 a lot of the

00:18People sort of scoffed at it and said, you know

00:21This this is a gimmick and it's not here to stay and look where we are today

00:24T20 is the is the is the most popular format. I won't say it's the greatest format, but it's the most popular

00:30It's brought in a whole new audience. I think you know from drawing parallels with cricket. I think that was a t20 version of golf

00:3718 holes given where we are today with our kids are with all their devices and you know

00:43You're struggling to get push your kids out of the house

00:45It was all it's always going to be a challenge to keep a 18 hole 72 hole format sort of going in the long run

00:52So I personally think nine holes is the future

00:54It was very punchy amateur golf is very very important

00:58And I think that sort of gets overlooked a lot

01:01Dubai has done a great job of putting itself on the map by hosting some of the biggest professional tournaments

01:06But the real growth of the game has to come at the amateur level in the junior level

01:10And I think with events like Eagle not just the mini series, but what lies ahead. I think it's a great opportunity to

01:18Open up what amateur golf is all about give the expatriate community in Dubai something

01:23That's really needed this creates a community feel it brings people together and more importantly

01:28I think it's the future of the format of golf

01:31Nine holes is where it's at

01:33I think people don't have the attention span to watch golf for five hours on TV two hours and done

01:38And I really think it's here to stay some sort of innovation has to happen

01:42I think we've seen the viewership is getting older

01:45If you want to bring a younger audience into the game if you want to bring more kids into the game

01:50We have to make it more fun personally yes shorter because of the attention span

01:55But also you need to change other things around it

01:57You don't want to take your kid out to the golf and say you have to be quiet for five hours

02:00And you know you want music you want fun you want them to go and have a good day out you go to

02:05Soccer game you can go and shout and scream your lungs out you go to

02:10Watch a baseball game in America or football game, so golf's got to be more entertainment

02:14I think the professional game needs to innovate

02:16I don't think we've honed in on what that perfect answer is

02:20But if you were to ask me personally I think a nine hole head-to-head sort of battle a team competition

02:27Something on those lines is where I really see the future if you look at just viewership in general

02:32You know the Ryder Cup or the President's Cup

02:34Gets a lot more traction than an individual event a team is always bigger than an individual

02:39So maybe a team format and a shorter format is definitely the future

02:43But I don't think the tours have looked at that seriously enough. I think

02:47Look, there's always going to be a place for your four-round majors and your World Golf Championships

02:51But on a day-to-day basis how many people actually watching regular tour events so some sort of innovation really needs to happen

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