The Golf Tour, to be held annually, will host a series of professional competitions that will be played at different golf courses in Kathmandu, Dharan and Pokhara. These competitions would bring together top-notch professional and amateur players from within SAARC circuit and beyond in a fitting display of talent and sports jamboree. Carrying a highest cash prize of NPR 2 million rupees, Surya Nepal Masters remains the most coveted, flagship event of the tour having an international reputation. The Golf Tour started this year on May 13 with The Central Open followed by Golfer Pilot's NPGA Classic and Surya Nepal Masters. There are three more events to be played this year as the tour is scheduled to continue till December.

2007 left a great deal of spectacle in Nepal's golfing history. That year's Surya Nepal Masters (SNM) had some best players from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and Nepal, it was listed among top 24 golf events under Amby Valley Professional Golf Tour of India and the prize money jumped almost 5 percent from NPR 19.2 to 20 million. The event took in some storm after 13 years when our veteran Nepali golfer Deepak Thapa Magar, Head Pro of Royal Nepal Golf Club, won the title. Magar made history by becoming the first Nepali to win the much aspired Surya Nepal Masters. Started out in 1993, Surya Nepal Masters has been the single biggest draw for international golfers from SAARC and East Asian region.

2007 also saw young Shiva Ram Shrestha creating a history when he became the first Nepali professional golfer to qualify for 2007-08 Indian Tour after finishing 20th on the ranking list of  Professional Golfers Tour of India. For the first time Nepal also hosted SAARC Invitational Golf Tournament in October, another remarkable feat.

Surya Nepal Masters 2008 has already taken place at Le Meridien Gokarna Golf Forest Resort and Spa from June 4-7, which was participated in by 54 professional golfers from India, 2 from Sri Lanka and 6 pros from Bangladesh. Altogether some 70 regional players appeared in the Masters. In the end the title went to Indian Shamim Khan followed by Anura Rohana of Sri Lanka in the second place. The other beneficiaries were Indians Vijay Kumar, Sujan Singh, Harinder Gupta and Gurbaaz Man, who finished 3-4-5-6 on the merit list. Likewise, Bangladesh turned victorious in the International Amateur Event closely trailed by Nepal and India. Indeed over the years the number of international players has increased, which indicates the growing significance of golf in Nepal.

Nepal's golfing roots is one of the oldest in the Indian subcontinent. Golfing interests in Nepal had already started taking shape among a handful of aristocratic Ranas as early as the first quarter of 20th century. By 1917, Gaucharan Golf Course in what is now the runaway of Tribhuvan International Airport came into existence. It took another five decades before a social club entirely dedicated to golf was formed in the name of Royal Nepal Golf Club. This was precisely 1965. Well, the rest is history.

In 1999, after 2 years of meticulous work by internationally reputed golf course designer Gleneagles, Le Meridien Gokarna Golf Resort and Spa opened. It didn't take long before the 6,715 yards par-72 golf course earned the reputation of being one of the finest international golfing venues in Asia. Not only is the golf course located in an ancient forest settings, it is the only course with Bent Grass Greens in whole of South Asia. Today there are over 8 golf courses in Nepal, the latest being the Commando or Army Golf Club in Kathmandu. These golf links have such varied facilities as their own club, members and tournaments and serving different purposes from recreational activities like Spa and weekend break to social get-togethers.

Golfing certainly offers a big leverage when it comes to promoting tourism in Nepal. Given its balmy, temperate climate, serene natural settings with Himalayas on the backdrop and competitive prices, Nepal holds a great potential of attracting international matches and players. And with the international players come their families, well-wishers and audiences who tend to be here on month-long affairs.

 NTB has been a promoter of Surya Nepal Masters since 2003 as part of its Sports Tourism campaign. In 2007 in collaboration with Surya Nepal, NTB published special promotional CD on 'Golfing in the Himalayas', the copies of which were distributed to golf players in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and in various Pro Am and Corporate Golf events held in India. In another milestone event, Ten Sports made a 30-minute broadcast of the Surya Nepal Masters 2007 across South and South-East Asia, which is estimated to have been viewed by over 400, 000 golfers.

In the same breath, Nepali golf courses must also play a proactive part in alluring tourists to their courses by promoting their facilities from time to time. At this moment, the product and services offered by these courses are still not visible. Golf clubs should reach out to tour and travel operators as well as international golf societies and go in for coordinated promotional gimmicks for mutual benefits. Similarly, bodies like Nepal Golf Association and NPGA should expand their networking globally while organizing more international level tournaments year round.

Tour operators on the other hand should develop golf tour packages to tap the ever-growing golfers' market within the Indian sub continent and beyond. Based on Golfworld online, there are estimated 5 million golfers in Asia alone, which is expected to grow by 20 per cent every year. Many tourists have shown interest towards playing golf in Nepal but it is still far from being capitalized. The tour operators should work towards repackaging the products by incorporating golf as one component of tourist experience in Nepal.

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