Rishi Narain

Born to Suresh Narain and Suman Narain, in New Delhi, India - his father worked for the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) and later Godfrey Phillipps.

He went to Mr Pires School for a short while before attending St Xaviers' Collegiate School and later La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata.

Narain picked up golf at the age of 12 after watching his father play at the Tollygunge Club in Calcutta. By his late teens, he moved across the road to the Royal Calcutta Golf Club and was already a six handicap having won the All India Junior in 1979 and All India Amateur in 1984 organised by the Indian Golf Union. In the process, he became the first to win both the Junior and Amateur titles.

He is married to Charu Narain, a former nationally ranked golfer and has two children Nikhil and Naina.

Between 1981–1984, he attended Brigham Young University(BYU) on a golf scholarship (the first Indian to be awarded such a scholarship) where he earned a bachelor's degree in Business Management and Accounting. While he was a student at BYU, Narain was part of the Men's Golf team and represented his country at the Asian Games. Narain, Laxman Singh, Amit Luthra and Rajiv Mohta won the team gold. Singh won the individual gold, Mohta silver, while Narain narrowly missed out on bronze after bogeying the last hole.

After he graduated, Narain worked as an accountant with the Utah-based Okuda & Co, followed by Stock Broking firm Kidder Peabody & Co.

Narain turned professional in 1987,and taught golf at Salt Lake City working under John Geertsen Jr who has served as Director of Instruction at the Golf Clinic held at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

In the summers, Narain would work on his game in Utah, while in the winter he played on the mini-tours in Florida.

In 1989, he returned to India to ply his trade on the then PGA Tour of India. He won the Southern India Wills Open and later the SRF Open Championship in 1992.

A bad back saw an early end to his playing career as he began teaching full-time at the Delhi Golf Club. Notable students include Shiv Kapur, Gaurav Ghei and Vivek Bhandari.

Narain was the honorary secretary of the PGA of India between 1992–1997, apart from being coach to the Indian national golf teams.

In 1998, he joined IMG as Director - Golf Business, South Asia where he worked until 2003.[1] Thereafter, he set up Rishi Narain Sports Marketing. The company has over the years marketed and conceptualised golf properties in India such as the Louis Philippe Cup, the World Corporate Golf Challenge, and the Duke of Edinburgh Cup. They are also organisers of South Asia's largest expo for golf - The India Golf Expo.

In 2017, he regained his amateur status.

Narain has contributed to a number of publications in India and abroad, including the Economic Times, Business Standard, Times of India,India Today Travel Plus, Asian Golf Monthly, and Golf Digest India.

He was the host of a show on Doordarshan Sports called "European Golf Weekly" which was produced by Transworld International. The show ran for over ten years.

In 2015, Narain was named as one of Asia's most powerful people in golf at the Asia Pacific Golf Summit.

In 2016 he relaunched Golf Digest Magazine in India. Narain is currently the Editor-in-Chief.

• Tee Time with Chaiti Narula
• Tee Time with Shaili Chopra