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Turning professional in India
urkirat Singh has been a junior golfer at the Protouch Golf Academy since he was 11 years old . Now , he has turned professional and has earned his card . The ultimate goal of every golfer is to become a professional in the sport and repesent his country on the USPGA Tour . This journey , however , begins from the Professional Golf Tour of India ( PGTI ). After a series of more tours like Asian , European and Web . com , we Indians can graduate to play the USPGA Tour unless you are lucky enough to get a spot otherwise . In India , like most countries , we have a tournament from where the top few become eligible to turn professional . This tournament is known as the Qualifying School to become a member of the PGTI . It is usually held at the beginning of every year . Since the last few years , the tournament has been held on the same schedule of two stages . The participants �rst play stage one , from where a number of participants make the cut . In the second stage , they are allotted their card which are the A , B , C and D cards . I was one of the 260 participants competing with each other to get the highest position and highest cards . The �rst stage consists of two 18-hole rounds after which the cut is applied and the players making the cut compete in stage 2 which is a four-day tournament .
After a decent performance in the �rst stage , I managed to get into the �nals . Playing for the �rst time in a professional quali�er did give me butter�ies in my stomach but I fought through it all . I stumbled and stood at the 62nd position to receive the B card .
by golftrade . net
Numero Uno
he Golf Bag iced on my 75th birthday reminded me of the yesteryears when I actually lugged it to the Royal Calcutta Golf Club to hear my caddie shout ‘ BALL ’ at my �rst tee shot of the day . If P . G . Woodhouse could create the popular lovable character called ‘ Jeeves ’, then not to be outdone , Golf created the quintessential ‘ Caddie ’. He is your Jeeves on the ‘ course ’ extracting you out of all sorts of awkward and dif�cult situations . If the stuck ball has surreptitiously shifted from the original ‘ lie ’ to a position best suited for his master , well … it just so happens that in the presence of the caddie mysterious things do happen ! His hawk eyes keep track of all your mis�red balls ( sometimes not yours !) as he moves with your burden of irons with alacrity . You know you have hit the bull ’ s eye by his strut and the puffed out chest .
At his best , he is your guide , philosopher and friend with a tongue-in-cheek humour . The other day when a golfer , after a disappointing game , vowed to move heaven and earth to �nish the course at Par , his advice came with a straight face “ try heaven sir ”, as he had already moved enough earth .
Beware of treating him like a country bumpkin for he can surprise you with the quality of shots that he can make with the help of a makeshift club carved out of a mere branch of a tree . He wonders what all this fuss is about for what after all , is akin to the simple ‘ gulli-danda ’ game . At such moments , all the expensive paraphernalia being lugged out from hole to hole looks redundant .
The role of the caddie has been given a unique respectability by Lord Krishna himself who volunteered to be Arjuna ’ s caddie in the epic battle of Mahabharata .
60 G o l f P l u s JULY 2018 by Rekha Gupta