Ramping up your game with Pros

CHENNAI:Life is never a level playing field and nothing brings home this philosophy better than a round of golf. A beginner, with diligent application, practice and perseverance might have a few good rounds and assume her game has settled, only to have it all unravelling on a crucial day. It is not uncommon for a player, with steady years of top class amateur performance to his credit, find himself coming up just a little short of that winning putt that makes all the difference to one’s standing on the leaderboard in a tournament. Sometimes, an agent of change, for both categories of players, can come from unexpected sources, such as a Pro. A ProAm tournament makes all the difference, as it did, on August 15, at the Tata Steel PGTI’s India Cements Pro Championship 2023 edition, held at Cosmo TNGF.

One can safely say that the margin of difference among the Pros is minimal; on the other hand, among the amateurs, the same is very wide, which is why amateurs are graded into gold, silver and bronze categories (based on their handicap, derived from the scores posted after completion of a round). Very rarely would a gold division golfer be comfortable playing with a bronze and vice versa, since everyone’s game gets impacted, mentally.

Which is why the ProAm events, where the Pros play with three amateurs, are a huge psychological boost to amateurs. ProAms are part of a huge learning curve: no one is looking to ask the Pros for playing tips, but the privilege of watching them at close quarters and learning first-hand the nuanced skill sets, is invaluable, apart from the sheer pleasure of playing golf, of course.

The intensity of the downpour on late night of 13th and early hours of 14th took even weathermen both pros and amateur bloggers by surprise. However, on the morning of the ProAm it was fabulous golfing weather, much to the delight of the players.

I was drawn to play with the ProKshitij Naveed Kaul, ChummarVerghese and Hari Manoj Giri and it was a round of good golf from the word go, with Kshitij hitting a long drive and Varghese giving us an eagle by sinking a giant footer. The scramble format enables risk taking and as four players play the same shot, everyone turns in excellent scores. With two eagles and quite a few birdies, ours was a bogey free card, although not enough to fetch a prize.

It was Kshitij’s calm approach that was a great takeaway for me. The extremely pleasant 22-year-old told me he knew he wanted to play golf from the time he was three when his father introduced him to the game. Kshitij also credited the lessons he took at the golf club (now defunct) in Coimbatore. From 2010 to 2014, he lived in Coimbatore, learning the nuances from coach Sake Gangadhar and remembers everything to this day, including the chipping ability of one of the caddies there. “He would beat us all every time, he had such a soft landing,” he recalls.

Watching Kshitij’s set up routine is an eye opener, from the slowmo grip to the deliberate check on shoulder alignment, to addressing the club first behind the ball and then in front, it is clear there is complete focus. Likewise, his putting prep. A two footed walk to judge the slope and surveying the line with the putter held horizontally, he says the margin for error is reduced, with his approach.

Post the rain, everyone’s concern was over the greens- would they be slow ? Or soggy? Within a few holes, it became clear the greens were good. “They were excellent,” said AdilBedi, the Pro, whose four ball won the ProAm, posting a phenomenal 52.9.

—The writer is ex Lady Captain, Cosmo TNGF