Europe's best players are getting their first glimpse of golf on the sub-continent with the Indian Masters at Delhi Golf Club.
PGA pro Stuart Campbell has already spent three years in India as the director of golf at Aamby Valley Golf Club - part of a billion dollar self-contained city - and PGA.info caught up with him to get an insight into golf in India.
Q. How popular is golf in India?
A. Players like Jyoti Randawa, Shiv Kapur, Jeev Milka Singh are blazing the trail for golf in India. Having said that cricket is God here, it consumes everybody. The majority of TV sport airtime goes to cricket as does the huge kitty of sponsorship.
The British Armed Forces built about 100 or so courses in their time here and now there are around 200.
The challenge for Indian golf is affordable courses/practice centres, it's happening but due to the huge population and lack of suitable land close to major conurbations it will take time and persistence.
Q. Has golf got a bright future in India?
A. I would say so. There are about 30 new courses being built with more in the pipeline.
Jeev Milka Singh's fantastic season in 2006 really set Indian golf on fire. India losing in the Cricket World Cup helped too, with more money coming into golf.
The Asian Tour is holding events here and so are the European Tour and the Ladies European Tour, not forgetting the Asian LPGA.
So in three years here I would say there is an appetite for learning golf, we have seen a 50 per cent increase in business and this season looks to be our busiest yet.
Mandarar and Tarandeep, my two assistants recently passed their PGA Golf Foundation Degree Course, so imagine the future for them!
They are the only Indian qualified PGA professionals with a population of 1.1 billion potential golfers.
Q. How did the job at Aamby Valley come about?
A. Like all things in life it was through a friend of mine Gary Silcock (now director of golf at The Belfry). My son and I were backpacking around the world, I think we were in Alice Springs, Australia, when the initial offer came from Gary some time in March 2004 and it went from there.
Q. Was it a difficult decision to go out there?
A. No not really, I looked on the internet and it just blew me away.
It's situated high up in the Western Ghats and is breathtaking, a wee bit of heaven on earth.
I would put the course condition wise on a par with Valderrama, it's that good.
Q. What was the size of the task that faced you?
A. It was massive. I had to train the staff, caddies, starters, range attendants, marshals, pro shop staff and office staff - the whole lot. Very few knew much about golf which was daunting at the time.
The key was to break things down into small chunks, we developed standard operating procedures for every department and training was set in place.
The language was also a problem, but that's where teamwork came to the rescue through my assistants and other English speaking staff, but my Hindi is improving slowly.
Q. What's the culture like in India?
A. The one thing you learn here is people's attitude to learning is different from the UK - they thirst for knowledge.
However I also learned if someone here says yes to you, you have to double check they understood what was asked or you could end up with something totally different.
Q. Is your course mainly used by tourists or locals?
A. Aamby Valley Golf Course & Academy was built mainly for the citizens who buy property here. However ex-pats, golf tourism and Indian corporate golf now come and utilise our facilities.
We also specialise in corporate golf events, clinics and lesson packages. We have hosted professional events both nationally and internationally.
In 2005 we were voted the best course by the PGA of India, which boosted the morale of all our hardworking staff and was a great achievement in such a short period of time.
Q. You have floodlit golf here - is that popular?
A. Yes. Night golf is fantastic, the temperature in the hot season can get into the mid 30s in the day so having the course floodlit is a real bonus.
It's cooler and the colours are so vivid under lights. I can see a time in the near future when this will be used more regularly as the city grows.
Q. What does the future hold for Aamby Valley and for you personally?
A. With the Indian economy booming our house sales are now taking off, so we can expect a great deal more traffic at Aamby.
We are keen to encourage golf tourism as a new concept for India. We are also in the sod business, a new diversification for us, given the quality of our turf.
Regarding me, I love the weather and the people, unfortunately not the food, but all in all it's the best experience of my career to date.
Q. Where did you start your career?
A. I started out under the watchful eye of John R. Black at Grangemouth Golf Course in Scotland back in May 1974. It was an extremely busy club and it was a great grounding in the trade, especially in operations, coaching and club repairs. Other clubs included Easter Moffat, Glencorse, Shipley near Bradford and Scotscraig.