My initiation with the game of Golf happened sometime at the turn of the millennium when I was transferred to a Hotel Project in Baroda (Vadodara).
Growing up in an Army environment, Golf was all around me but I was happily lost in the rigmarole of education and the joys of cricket. I was oblivious to the pleasures of golf. Imagine living right next to the US Club in Mumbai and not playing Golf.
There were two people I knew with a Baroda connection back then – one was the legendary cricketer Mohinder Amarnath whose in-laws lived there and the other was the ubiquitous Kiran More.
Today I would give an arm and a leg to do that (Its another matter that I might really have to sell an arm and a leg and yet not be able to buy real estate there-but that’s another story)
There were two people I knew with a Baroda connection back then – one was the legendary cricketer Mohinder Amarnath whose in-laws lived there and the other was the ubiquitous Kiran More.
Kiran was going to shape my life in a manner that I didn’t anticipate and had no clue of, when I made that move to Baroda.
My hotel was at least a year away from being operational and therefore I did not have those work hours that a hotel General Manager is known for putting in. Standing on the top floor of the under-construction hotel I could see the famous Laxmi Vilas Palace of the Gaekwads and the immense amount of greenery around the palace. I learnt, that was the Gaekwad Baroda Golf Club.
Being the only friend when I moved there, Kiran spoke to me about the benefits of Golf. One, I couldn’t obviously play cricket regularly, two it was akin to a bat and ball game except that the ball was stationary (I thought that was easy and subsequently rubbed my nose to the ground with that thought), and third and most important it would be great for me to develop business for my hotel when it opened.
I opted to listen to him seriously for the 3rd reason.
I don’t want to eulogise Kiran More, but today between his wife Raavi and me, we refer to him as Dronacharya, a sobriquet that I gave him for his efforts on me at that time.
There was no way I was going to buy a golf set at that time. My father had just retired as a Maj.General and settled in another Golf rich city Lucknow – and needless to say, playing golf post retirement.
I did not think I would like that game, so I sheepishly told Kiran, I wasn’t going to buy a set until I didn’t feel necessary. Kiran got me to learn the game on Raavi’s graphite shafted set. Raavi then was busy looking after their school going girls (now pretty lasses Ruhi and Zaahi) and had taken a sabbatical.
Course of life: Snehal Kulshrestha on initiation into golf – I did not think I would like that game, so I sheepishly told Kiran, I wasn’t going to buy a set until I didn’t feel necessary.
Fortunately I lived 100 metres away from Kiran’s home and so every morning 5 days a week on the weekdays, Kiran came at 6 am, waited patiently in his car while I woke up grudgingly and made my way to the GBGC golf course in his car.
There he would painstakingly stand by my side on the first fairway (no driving range then) and make me hit balls. Besides his teaching abilities that I came to respect and still do to this day, I also came to discover a new vocabulary that he possessed, such was his passion and fervour to teach me the game.
On the weekends I would practice by myself as Kiran played his weekend round. It was only after 3 dedicated months on that makeshift fairway-range that I played, rather got to play my first ever round with “Rusty” (God bless his soul).
Traditionally Gp Capt (Retd) Rusty Palamkot broke the new golfer into the GBGC course. Rusty was an Air Force Veteran and his joie de vivre was unmatched by anybody at his age, perhaps 75 at that time.
Golf to me, has been a way to come to terms with what life brings you at every turn-that is, the unexpected.
Then there was no looking back. My love affair with Golf became quite a contentious issue with friends who didn’t play the game and soon the wife realised it was better to accept those lonely weekend mornings and early weekend nights for my passion towards the game.
Golf to me, has been a way to come to terms with what life brings you at every turn-that is, the unexpected. No two shots are same, even played one after the other. It became an avenue where I met some names I would not have ever met if not for this fabulous game.
Playing with the likes of Brad Faxon, Kapil Dev, Tony Grieg, Sir Barry Richards, Sandeep Patil, Mohinder Amarnath, Karsan Ghavri, film actor Suresh Oberoi, Murali Kartik, partnering and winning with Venkatesh Prasad have been some great moments that the game gave me.
Meeting the legends of the game on the course, like Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood, Ernie Els, etc is something that I cannot trade anything with. Most of all, winning a friendly wager with my mentor Kiran has been a high point.
Over the last 15 years other coaches such as Vijay Divecha and the magic of Suru Vasudevan (BPGC) have helped me maintain a respectable handicap.
Like I tell people who have no idea of the game, this is the only one in the world, which you can play with the worlds best and yet compete. After all, you cannot play Chess with Vishy Anand, serious cricket with Rahul Dravid, tennis with Novak Djokovic.
But if you are in Florida and Tiger happens to be hitting a few balls at the course where you are, he might just agree to a 9 or 18 hole round with you and play it in earnest, with a wager on the side if you are crazy enough to accept that.
