PROFESSIONAL GOLF TOUR OF INDIA (PGTI) has decided to scale back the number of tournaments on its calendar while increasing prize money per event, a move aimed at safeguarding players’ financial interests, the Hindustan Times reported.
The tour’s full schedule for 2026 is yet to be finalised, with the calendar currently confirmed only up to the end of March. The announced slate features six tournaments, including two new additions. Overall, PGTI is planning to stage no more than 25 events this year, a significant reduction from the 36 held in 2025, which included eight tournaments on the NextGen Tour for emerging professionals. Prize money on the main tour stood at Rs 35 crore in 2025, up from Rs 24 crore the previous year.
“We received feedback from the players that playing week after week was a bit too much. They need time to rest and recover,” said PGTI president Kapil Dev.
“In an ideal world, I’d have wanted 40 weeks of golf, but that’s not how it pans out. In India, you can’t play in the monsoon or peak summer, which means the 52-week year is significantly crunched. Cramming it with 35-odd events puts a lot of stress on golfers. Quite a few of them reached out to us saying they need more breaks between tournaments for better recovery. I think 25 weeks of golf should be ideal,” he said.
While the number of tournaments will be reduced, Dev stressed that player earnings will not be compromised. “We don’t want the players to suffer financially. We’re looking to raise the minimum prize purse to Rs 2 crore,” he said. The three events scheduled for February are the Chhattisgarh Open in Raipur and the DP World Players Championships in New Delhi and Tollygunge will each carry a prize purse of Rs 1.5 crore.
Dev also promised a stronger international presence on Indian courses in 2026. In 2025, global stars such as Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland competed in India across the International Series and the inaugural DP World India Championship. According to Dev, Indian fans can expect a similar level of star power this year.
PGTI has also secured logistics major DP World as its title sponsor, a partnership that is expected to support long-term development initiatives, particularly at the grassroots level.
“That is one of our focus areas and we are in the process of finalising a few things. We need to pump in a lot of money to take golf to tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Where we stand now, even 100 new courses won’t be enough,” Kapil said.
