india Nicklaus Design Does the Nath

Maybe you heard that Nicklaus Design recently found a "design representative" in India.

The company's new rep is Shivas Nath, who runs a company called Evolution Golf. The press release announcing the appointment says that Evolution manages a chain of golf stores and operates some golf courses and driving ranges -- no specifics are provided -- and it describes Nath as "a former player turned golf entrepreneur." In the same release, Paul Stringer, the executive vice president of Nicklaus Design, calls Nath "an experienced and forward-thinking person."

When it comes to doing business in India, the Nicklaus empire sure can use some forward thinking. Jack Nicklaus has designed just one of India's roughly 250 golf courses, an 18-hole "signature" track at Classic Golf Resort in New Delhi, and it opened way back in 1998. Since then, the world's most famous golf designer hasn't landed any other "signature" commissions, despite the fact that India has opened something like 80 new courses over the past five years.

Nicklaus Design, which produces the firm's more "affordable" courses, hasn't completed even one course in India, although it currently has one under construction, Kalhar Blues & Greens in Ahmedabad, and another in the works in Ludhiana. Both contracts were inked without Nath's assistance.

This curious lack of work in India isn't unique to Nicklaus. In fact, none of the golf industry's "celebrity" designers has a significant presence in the planet's seventh-largest nation. Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, and Robert Trent Jones, Jr. have each designed just one course there. Tom Fazio, Nick Faldo, and Rees Jones haven't designed any.

Instead, the work has gone to lesser-known, less expensive designers such as K. D. Bagga, Peter Thomson, Phil Ryan, Peter Harradine, Martin Hawtree, and Graham Cooke.

What gives? Why isn't India fertile territory for the better-known architectural brands? Why, considering that golf has been played in India since the 1820s, have Indian developers not built a parade of high-profile tracks, the way developers have done in most other nations where golf is well established?

Here's an explanation, courtesy of David Hemstock, a British architect who designed Aamby Valley Golf Club in Mumbai, which the Indian PGA named as the nation's best course in 2004.

India is, thankfully, taking a pragmatic approach. That's why the big names struggle there. Only in India can a chap like me get the opportunity.

Here's another explanation, this one from Ron Garl, a designer based in Lakeland, Florida.

People are looking for golf courses that are enjoyable, memorable, and challenging -- not 7,500-yard, very difficult, and expensive 'signature' designs. Golf is doing well in foreign countries because players come to the game for the camaraderie with their friends, enjoyment, and love of the game -- the same reasons most of us in America started playing golf. India is no exception to this rule.

There are other possible explanations, of course. Maybe the celebrity designers haven't struck gold simply because golf is a "mature" business in India, and developers don't need stars to sell the game.

But I'm still not satisfied. There's something about golf in India that's different from golf elsewhere, and I've got a feeling that Nath's ability to sell Nicklaus courses will tell us what it is.