Oct 14, 2017: On Wednesday this week, Golfing Indian spoke to Ajeetesh Sandhu after he won his maiden title on the Asian Tour. Two days later, he won once again at the 36-hole Taiheiyo Club Challenge event in a playoff against Konosuke Nakazato to take home 1,800,000 Japanese yen ($16,000). Held at the Taiheiyo Club Konan Course, this event was a part of the Japanese Challenge Tour – that is the feeder tour for the main Japanese Golf Tour. All in all, a good birthday week for Sandhu, who moves to 13th on the Order of Merit with one event left in the season.
In the early 1990s, Jesse Grewal quit his job working in the tea gardens and came back to Chandigarh to teach golf. The Class A teaching professional from the National Golf Academy of India set up shop at the Chandigarh Golf Club (CGC) home to some of Indian golf’s most well-known names in Jeev Milkha Singh, Harmeet Kahlon and Irina Brar among others. During this period, Grewal started organizing junior programs at the CGC.
“We could take the children out onto the golf course and therefore they could play and compete. In Chandigarh the distances are short, facilities are good, and the club has always encouraged the junior program, allowing these kids to play even on busy days. They grew up together in a nice, healthy competitive environment.”
In 1987, the elder Sandhu joined the CGC. He would end up serving as club Captain for one term and honorary treasurer thrice on the committee. “I was in the engineering department of the government of Punjab. Till this time no one in my family had ever played the sport.”
A year later, his son Ajeetesh was born and the now-retired Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department introduced his son to the game soon after. “At the age of three, I started getting him cut down to size golf clubs.”
Fast-forward to 2017, the younger Sandhu won his maiden title on the Asian Tour at the Yeangder TPC by a shot over his nearest competitor Johannes Veerman from the United States.
Speaking from Japan, the soft-spoken Ajeetesh Sandhu remains calm and composed even in victory. “More than the win, the opportunities that it presents are important!”
“My dad thought he had taken the game up late in life and wanted me to give it a go at an earlier age. My first tournament was at the age of eight at the CGC. I can remember the emotions I was going through at the time. That’s what got me going, just the adrenaline and the sense of competition and then winning – I was hooked once I started playing competitively.”
At seven, he joined Grewal’s camp and has been there ever since. “I still remember as a kid, everyone would practice on the first fairway at the CGC. I’d sit behind these golfers like Jeev and watch them. I think all of us in Chandigarh were often close to International golfers, and golfers who were doing well. You can only learn in situations like this. Not everyone in the world had the kind of access that we did.”
Playing the junior tour, Sandhu made the number one ranking in all the categories he played in tournaments across India. At thirteen, he represented the country for the first time.
For his final two formative years, the junior moved to the IMG Academy in the States which offers a two-year course preparing one for the rigors of collegiate and later professional golf. Sandhu was one of the first Asians to be offered a scholarship entitling him to $65,000 at the time.
“Sean O’ Hair would be there at the time and so was Casey Wittenberg. Peter Uihlein was a classmate of mine.”
“Moving out of home at a young age and trying to manage everything on your own – school, golf, fitness, life. More than anything I learned how to balance all these aspects. The competition and courses were pretty stiff. Living life on your own as an 18-year old is not easy!”
Many Indian golfers have gone the American way come college time such as Rishi Narain who was at Brigham Young University, or Shiv Kapur at Purdue. So why did Sandhu come back to Chandigarh to pursue a three-year degree in Economics?
“I thought about it, given the nature of the sport. No matter what you do, golf is getting younger every year. Especially if you look at Asia, all the Thai kids start their careers at fourteen-fifteen. So I decided that this is what I wanted to do.”
In 2008, he turned professional and nearly won in his first year. 5th in Pune, 2nd in Haryana and 4th in Jamshedpur. Two years later, he made 18 out of 19 cuts on the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI). 2011 saw him content for the first time in an Asian Tour event at the Sail Open won eventually by Thai golfer Kiradech Aphibarnrat at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC).
“DGC is always a course I have liked. A lot of people say it is not a fair test of golf but it’s just a very strong test of your mental ability. There was a pretty good chance to win all the way until the 18th where I had to make an eagle to force a playoff and lipped it out. A close call, but a great week at that point in my career.”
By Aman Misra
