Woods hopeful of coming to India; three players of Indian origin in World Chlg.

Former World No1 Tiger Woods is still hopeful of coming to India for a competitive event something he has not been able to do for the 10 years he has been Hero Motorcorprsquos Global Partner While Woods is looking forward to visiting India Pawan Munjal the chairman managing director and CEO of Hero MotoCorp is thrilled to have extended his partnership with the starstudded Hero World Challenge for another six years till 2030 and with Woods to continue as their global partnerA third thing that brought a big smile to Munjalrsquos face was that he was able to bring to the field three players of Indian origin ndash Sahith Theegala Akshay Bhatia and Aaron RaiMunjal said ldquoIf you remember we had Anirban one time here which was a great thing to happen He was in the Top 30 then To have three boys of Indian origin in a field of the best and Top 20 is a huge huge thing for IndiaWe have been looking for an Indian star on the golfing map to really grow the game of golf in India Im sure even if theyre not Indians but they are of Indian origin Im sure the whole nation is going to be very very excited and very proud about this factrdquo he saidIndianAmerican Sahith is 12th in the world rankings IndoBritish Rai is 21st and Indian American Akshay Bhatia is 31st as the entire field of 20 comprises players inside Top40 in the worldAlso ReadTeam India witness the presence of 3000 fans during the practice session at the Adelaide OvalWoods commented ldquoAll the players who come down here over the years have supported this event some of them have started their own foundations because of the impact that Pawan and I have had on this event and our various charitiesrdquoHero and Tiger Woods Foundation and Woods came together for the HWC in 2014 and will now be together till at least 2030 making it one of the longest relationships on the PGA TourWoods who has often chosen HWC which he hosts as an event to test his fitness and preparation ahead of the following season admitted ldquoYeah I am disappointed Im not physically ready yet to compete at this level By the time I came back here I was ready to start competing and playing again Unfortunately not this time I still need to keep training to give myself the best chance going into next year and the events aheadrdquoOn the issue of the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia which funds the LIV series Woods said ldquoI think all of us who have been a part of this process would have thought it would have happened quicker than this Even if it did were still at the regulations of the DOJ Department of Justice saying its giving us hominus dominus that it will go through Even if we had gotten a deal done by now its still in the DOJs hands but we wish we would have had something more concrete and further along than we are right now But things are very fluid were still working through it and its happening daily From a policy board standpoint or an enterprise standpoint things are moving and theyre constructive But yes definitely movingrdquoOn his return to golf and competing Woods is still desirous and hopeful He said ldquoThe fire still burns to compete The difference is the recovery of the body to do it is not what it used to be I still love doing it I love competing I love competing in anything whether were playing cards or were playing golf No matter what it is I love competingrdquoThe Hero World Challenge will be held from Dec 5 to 8 with 20 players all of whom figure in the top 40 of the world competingThe field is led by World No1 Scottie Scheffler who is also the FerdEX champion twotime Masters champion who won in 2022 and 2024 and also the defending champion of the Hero World ChallengeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever