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PROUD of Myself
by Digraj Singh
Golf Entrepreneur and consultant . Has coached and also presented on golf . Represented India in Amateur golf . Won the National Games and Sri Lanka National titles .
I had never felt my heart pound so hard and fast before this . A terrible and desolate feeling of having blown the tournament engulfed me like a dark cloud . Everything had changed in just 15 minutes . From bright sunshine and confidence to this state of mind . This was during the 3rd round of the National Games Golf being played at the Delhi Golf Club and immediately after having jumped into the lead with a birdie on the par 3 5th hole . After two rounds of 74 on the first two days and in the midst of unprecedented media glare , I had eased into the leaderÊs position after a birdie-two on the par 3 , 5th hole and then proceeded to play the 6th in the most horrendous way possible . I made a score of 8 on the par 4 hole . In those days , in 1985 , while two rounds of 74 were good enough to get one into serious contention , a quadruple bogey was also bad enough to knock one out of it . Normally a fairly controlled person , a range of emotions surged through me , the foremost of which was anger . I was steaming . With myself and also with that over friendly senior gentleman who was disturbing me . And then again with myself because I also knew that it was eventually my fault only . After dropping those 4 shots on one hole , I felt that I had thrown away my chances of winning a tournament which I so desperately wanted to win . I struggled for control but it seemed as if my mind had left my body . It was quite a terrible feeling . So let me share the background to it . Based in Mumbai , it was the second year of competitive golf for me . After winning the Sri Lankan Amateur Championship earlier that year and backed up by a couple of other good finishes in India , I got shortlisted for the 1st Selection camp to select the team for the 1986 Asian Games . The camp was held for 4 weeks during the period Sept-Oct in 1985 at the Delhi Golf Club , the „ Mecca ‰ for Indian Golf . The four week long camp was then followed
by the National Games during which teams were invited from different states and included a lot many more senior golfers , other than those in the camp . After an educative and physically demanding camp , during the last week of which I tied my friend Andy Sharma with the best score during the selection rounds , I was looking forward to the National Games . The games were being held in Delhi with much fanfare after the successful Asian Games of 1982 and there was a lot of anticipation and excitement . I still remember getting goose bumps during the march past at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium wearing Maharashtra State colors . It was a new experience . Not something one experiences in Golf normally and I was quite charged up . And also quite keen to prove myself against those new senior golfers who had missed the camp but had come for this tournament . It also played in my mind that winning the National Games gold would perhaps help me secure a place in the Asian Games team , something I really wanted . The month long camp at the challenging Delhi Golf Club had been a boon for me . I had come to terms with the initial visual „ challenge ‰ which the course offers with the thick shrub lined fairways . A missed shot into the dense bush lining the fairways was a guarantee for disaster . The playing strategy demanded ensuring that the ball was kept in play and that the missed shots , if any , did not get into too much trouble . This meant conservative play off the tees and working on keeping the tee shots on the fairway . However , after the camp , I had become quite comfortable with the course , which after measuring the width of the fairways made me realize that that it was actually quite wide and a fair test of golf . But one had to be patient and yet fearless . So there I was excited and ready for the challenge on a course which seemed like a friend after spending that month there . And while the quality field promised some intense competition , I was quite in control of my game and confident of playing well . For a competitive golfer thatÊs a great feeling . Playing with upcoming star Jeev Milkha Singh over the first two rounds , I shot two fairly average rounds of 74 each and was lying in the 2nd position , one shot behind the leader . I knew that the third round would be critical . I began the round fairly well and after 4 regulation pars on the first 4 holes , I made a birdie on the 5th hole to tie for the lead . Before disaster struck . And that has a background too . It was a disaster waiting to happen as I had started allowing myself to get disturbed by an over friendly senior age spectator who was following me and had taken it upon himself to speak with me during the round . He made several attempts to speak with me during the first 5 holes and my mono-syllabic yet courteous replies did not give him the message that I wanted to be left alone . I made up my mind to request him to let me concentrate but before I could do so , things happened . The 6th hole at the DGC is a par 4 with a raised tee . Thanks to the birdie on the 5th I was the first to tee off and as I was lining up for the shot , I could see him start to climb up the tee . He could not see me but I could . I should have got off the ball and gone through my routine again but instead chose the dumb route of going ahead with the shot . I rushed the swing and as a result pulled the ball deep into the bushes on the left . It was the worst shot I had hit the entire week and his well-meant ÂtchtchÊ did not help . My dear friend then followed me into the bushes to help search for the ball . I was angry and not thinking straight . Fortunately we found the ball inside the thick bush and I made another stupid decision to play it , instead of taking a penalty drop for an unplayable lie . A feeble effort to punch the ball out from that impossible lie left me within the bushes . His comment , „ jor se maarna tha – that I should have hit it harder ‰, enraged me . Well to cut the story short , I made a horrendous 8 on the hole . And he made some more well-meant but
54 G o l f P l u s AUGUST JULY 2018 2018