Netherlands, Shiv both in good stead

June 14, 2013. In the minutes Shiv Kapur’s favourite football team Netherlands were thrashing Spain in Brazil, Kapur was playing some crucial holes at Pinehurst part of the US Open keeping himself in the top twenty within distance of people like Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Graeme McDowell, Phil Mickelson. Birdies on 3rd, 5th, 11th boost Kapur’s game and perhaps confident about taking on Pinehurst No.2. If it wasn’t for the ugly double bogey on the 16th, Kapur would have delivered a dream game. The good news was that he made the cut and Netherlands had beaten the hell out of Spain.

“5-1 are you kidding me???,” Kapur’s reaction to the football game last night. “Netherlands have always been my dark horse and I am sticking to them this football season too,” the golfer shared in an exclusive chat with golfingindian.com

Football and golf have no comparison in terms of its fans, the size of the ball or the stadium pulse but it has indeed had special moments. The Ryder Cup in Chicago in 2013 when Europe’s fans came up with chants of ‘Europe! Europe!’ and ‘Olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé’ as though in a football stadium. Where golf and football do find a common subset is the money involved which can be seriously huge.

A piece by a blog called Kickology thoughts of Washington Redskins kicker Justin Medlock who also plays golf. According to the blog “he garners more attention for his part-time caddying job. When his football schedule doesn’t conflict, he caddies for his girlfriend, LPGA golfer Hannah Jun.”

The site quotes him saying, “It’s similar in that you have to forget the last kick or the last shot. The difference is that kicks come every 20 minutes, your next shot is two minutes away. You have to get over it fast. The pressure is a little more extreme in my case because of the crowds. But in golf the pressure is you have to succeed to make money…. [Hannah] knows I put a lot of pressure on myself and I can get a little stressed, especially when punting. She tells me just to relax and do my thing.”

We are yet to find a golfer who isn’t in love with the beautiful game and have their teams set for the football season. What will be interesting is to see when and how some of the football fanfare will actually rub off on golf.