By Jim Bebbington
In August the first Himalayan Open will be held… in Colorado.
A project of a group of Nepalese diaspora, the golf tournament is intended to bring together as many players as possible – Nepalese or not – to help spread the game just a little more throughout the ex-pat community.
The project is led by an organizing committee including Denver-area physician Dipen Dadaria and Pemba Sherpa, owner of Sherpa Chai Tea Company and Sherpa’s Adventurer Restaurant in Boulder.
Dadaria said their goals are to bring people together in a beautiful part of the country and to expose young people in their culture to the game.
“I think (golf) is one of the best things anyone can do,” Dadaria said. “It’s amazing the importance of golf – it goes up once you’re 70 and that’s the only thing you have in life. It’s like meeting with. your friends for four hours – that’s the best thing we could do.”
The tournament is the weekend of Aug. 8 and 9 at Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course near Castle Rock. Registration for the event was closed about a month early.
“We initially aimed for 50 to 60 golfers; bot now we had to cap it at 120,” he said.
Sherpa said they want particularly to help participants to learn how to play within the structure of a tournament. With $36,000 being given away for various low net and gross prizes, Sherpa said they are going to use the tournament to get more people familiar with playing under formal rules and
“Even thought it was introduced in the early 1917, during the King’s era, only the royal family and the highpeople, diplomats and rich of the riches, played the game back then,” Sherpa said. “Even today out of 30 million population of Nepal there is no more than 1,200 Nepalese golfers.”
“All of us are migrant from the Himalayan region to the United States, new to golf, new to the world, but extremely new to golf,” Sherpa said. “And to come to the United States, and as a land of the opportunity and through the hard work, honesty, to be able to find an opportunity to play golf — that’s a completely different legacy picture that we can give toward the future generations. That if you work hard, you do good, you get there. ”
This first edition of the Himalayan Open being near the mountains here does not mean they will be here forever. Sherpa said players have signed up from around the country and so it’s their hope that the tournament can travel the U.S. as well.
“If somebody says next time we want to do it in New York or Nebraska or California, why not?
A little more than 50 players are coming from out of state for this year’s Himalayan Open.
For more information, see HimalayanOpen.com
Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.
The Himalayan Open will be played Aug. 8 and 9 at Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course By Jim Bebbington In August the first Himalayan Open will be held… in Colorado. A project of a group of Nepalese diaspora, the golf tournament is intended to bring together as many players as possible – Nepalese or not
The last two tournaments ended with dramatic playoff victories for local pros
In an eventful week for the Japanese brand, its new ZXi irons will be on show in Minnesota
