February 21, 2016: Siddikur Rahman is an affable golfer with a loyal following in the sub-continent. There is no dearth of people wishing him well as he travels across Asia in the pursuit of success. Naturally, it must have tugged at many hearts when the Bangladeshi wrote an intimate blog for the Asian Tour signing off simply with a ‘wish me luck.”
The 32 year old reflected on the present quality of his game the problems that are holding back from a full recovery. Siddikur was disarmingly open about his physical and mental battle with his errant game.
“I’m very excited to be here. Physically I’m okay but I need to work harder to get back on track. I’m struggling a bit with my game right now,” admitted Siddikur, whose best finish in 2016 was a disappointing 35th at his home event, the Basundhara Bangladesh Open. “I’ve having good practice sessions but when I’m on the golf course during a tournament round, I get a bit tired, have doubts in my mind.”
“I’ve discussed this with my coach and we’ve decided that we need to get physically stronger. I’m probably lacking a bit of physical conditioning now,” said Rahman as he analysed his problems.
Siddikur is hoping to seal a spot for the Olympics in Rio and he felt naturally that the Bangladesh Open was a good opportunity to regain some form, perhaps even win the title.
“I had ambitions to win the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open last week but didn’t play good enough. The Olympics is obviously on my mind too and if I can get a couple of top-10s before July, I should qualify for Rio,” said a hopeful Siddikur. “I want to regain my form of 2010 and 2011 and to get back to that level, I need to get stronger, which is my goal for this year.”
Since contending for the title at the Panasonic Open India last season, Siddikur has been dealing with a suspect back. “My back injury last year didn’t allow me to focus on my physical strength and I lost a lot of my stamina and power. That’s obviously lacking in my game right now.”
“I believe I will get back to my best form soon,” asserted the resilient Bangladeshi. “I’ll continue to work hard at my game to achieve this.” The Hero Indian Open is round the corner and Siddikur can draw some energy from his run last year when he shared the lead before finishing 7th after an insipid final round.
Surely there are a lot of people wishing Siddikur luck as he looks to restore his form and confidence.
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