GOLFINGLY YOURS!

I have written earlier about my passion for football… I actually played a lot of sports from when I was in school. I was in our school hockey team and netball team and have tried my hand at a whole number of other sports from swimming to tennis to squash. However one game which I enjoyed from the first day was golf and I have had my ups and downs with this game for I would guess about 30 years. It has to be one of the most frustrating games in the universe! Imagine… all you have to do is hit one small stationary ball from point A to point B in as few shots as possible and repeat this on 18 holes. How difficult can that be? Trust me… it can bring grown men and women to tears. If I had pennies for the number of days that I have come back from attempting to play golf and vowing that I would never play this ‘stupid’ game again I would be a multi millionaire by now. However this resolution never lasts more than a couple of days… the golf course is like a magnet that draws you and without even realising it you are back on the course with high hopes and expectations. After all… tomorrow is another day!!

I can’t remember the exact year that I started golf but I remember that my father bought me my first set on one of my trips to Manchester. In those days golf equipment was not readily available here so I had to carry everything from golf balls to gloves to tees to clothes from there. I was also living with my in laws and we only wore saris at home so I would go to the club, dash into the changing room, change into my trousers, go play and then back to my sari and home. My sister Suman and I used to go together and we would rush out of the house when our mothers in law used to go for their afternoon naps and be back for when they woke up. It was hectic but we used to enjoy ourselves immensely and would look forward to our afternoons at Tolly.

One of the first tournaments I played at Tolly was the Taj Trophy. This has proved to be my most lucky competition as I have won it thrice and I also got my first ‘hole in one’ during this.

When we started golf there were a number of very good senior, in both age and experience, ladies who used to travel to Hong Kong to compete in the Ladies Amateur tournament being played there and we used to look up to them and wonder if would ever be good enough to emulate them. What dreams we had!

I stopped and started my golf for various reasons but it always drew me back. I not only played but I was quite involved in the administration of the Tollygunge Ladies Golf Union and was Lady Captain of Tolly as well as the Chairperson of the Indian Golf Union Ladies Section which covered all ladies golf throughout India. Through these I met a lot of extremely interesting golfers and made some very good friends in our golfing community. As the Captain of our Ladies Indian Team in a number of International tournaments, I was honoured to hoist our flag to the tune of our National Anthem in the background. It was truly a wonderful experience and still gives me goosebumps.

I also managed to fulfill my dream of playing not only in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore but I also competed in Bangkok, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia. My first tournament abroad was in Bangkok and our LGU decided it would pay for the air fare and entry fee for 6 players to go and compete. We had some qualifying rounds and I was lucky enough to be one of the six. That was the easy part!! I now had to get permission from my in laws to go on my own to Thailand. It took me a week to pluck up the courage but I must say my father in law, being a sportsman himself, readily agreed and was extremely supportive. I managed to come runners up in my division and came back with a lovely trophy which he most proudly displayed in the cabinet right opposite where he used to sit. Whenever anyone came home he would proudly show them my trophy and this encouragement really gave me a boost. I then went on to play in a whole load of different tournaments but as luck would have it I never won anything but he always supported me. In fact after one of the tournaments Vinay jokingly suggested that I buy a trophy and pretend I had won it!!

In my earlier days of golf I found that we were all a lot more disciplined and keener to improve. I would go out and play or practice about5-6 times a week. I had a real fire in me to bring down my handicap and I would play in rain, wind or shine…. nothing deterred me. Nowadays I am a lot more relaxed and just enjoy myself. I have made some wonderful friends on the golf course and we are all like a happy family. However that competitive edge is still there. We still fight over the number of strokes we are giving… whether to ‘give’ a putt or not and who ultimately wins. If I have a really bad round I may lose about maximum of Rs200-300 but it really pains me to hand that money over for not only have I lost money but I have also lost bragging rights which is most important.

Talking about this reminds me that I need to stop writing and go and hit some balls…. I have a big game tomorrow!!!