At a raucous New Delhi auction, six franchises spent like believers and argued like rivals — signalling that professional golf’s franchise era in India has well and truly arrived.
For years, Indian professional golf has existed in cricket’s vast shadow — admired in quiet corners, rarely loud enough to fill a room. On Monday, in a conference hall in New Delhi, it got loud. Six franchise owners, armed with Rs 1 crore budgets and unmistakable intent, spent four hours turning golfers into commodities, rivals into bidding partners, and base prices into distant memories.
The Champion Who Arrived in Form
No one walked into Monday’s auction room with more momentum than Honey Baisoya. Three weeks removed from winning the DP World Players Championship at the very Qutub Golf Course where 72 The League will be played, the 29-year-old arrived as the obvious headline act — and delivered on the billing. Three franchises, Capital Lancers, Rajasthan Regals and Kolkata Classics, bid relentlessly for him. The Lancers eventually won, paying Rs 20.5 lakh for a player listed at a Rs 10 lakh base price.
“Good things have been happening for the last three weeks,” Baisoya said after the sale. “I’ve been working hard and I’m having a good time now.” It was the understatement of the afternoon.
When All Six Hands Go Up
If Baisoya was the expected blockbuster, Shubham Jaglan was the auction’s genuine surprise. The 21-year-old entered proceedings in the Silver category at a Rs 3 lakh base price — the kind of listing that rarely warrants a second glance. What followed was the day’s most theatrical sequence: every single franchise raised a paddle. All six. The price climbed past Rs 10 lakh, then Rs 15 lakh, before Charminar Champions finally closed the room at Rs 19 lakh — more than six times what Jaglan was worth on paper.
It was, in microcosm, exactly what organisers had hoped this league would produce: the sense that in franchise golf, reputations matter less than potential, and that a 21-year-old with the right game can make six grown institutions lose their composure.
Sixteen, Sixty, and Everything In Between
The auction’s range of talent was as striking as its prices. Kartik Singh, a 16-year-old also placed in the Silver category, drew a prolonged three-way battle before Mumbai Aces secured him for Rs 14.40 lakh — nearly five times his Rs 3 lakh base. At the opposite end of the age spectrum, 60-year-old Mukesh Kumar, one of Indian golf’s most enduring figures, joined Kolkata Classics for Rs 7 lakh, a reminder that this league is making room for legacy alongside promise.
Arjun Prasad, whose form has been quietly excellent — an eighth-place finish at the DP World Players Championship and a tied-ninth at the SECL Chhattisgarh Open this month — went to UP Prometheans for Rs 18 lakh, the day’s third-highest domestic sale.
The World Is Watching — and Playing
Twelve professionals from seven countries were drafted across the day, lending the competition a global texture that organisers have clearly prioritised. American Jhared Hack was the priciest of the international contingent at Rs 15.80 lakh, snapped up by Capital Lancers, who now boast both the auction’s top domestic buy and its top overseas signing. “I heard Honey Baisoya is also on my team,” Hack said. “Maybe we can pair up for some match play stuff.”
The first edition of 72 The League, jointly launched by PGTI and Game of Life Sports (GOLS), begins February 21 across Classic Golf and Country Club, Jaypee Greens and Qutub Golf Course. The format is new, the franchises are untested, and the questions about sustained public appetite remain open. But if Monday was any indication, the problem will not be a lack of drama.