Pranav Nandakumar: a study in determination

CHENNAI: THE Moon and Six Pence, a loosely biographical novel by the celebrated writer Somerset Maugham is one of those books where the moral of the story is in the Title. The protagonist of the novel gives up a staid and stable life to pursue his passion to paint- and succeeds.

This is a conundrum most people face in their lives- at some point or the other. Especially for a typical school boy or girl in the CBSE system who is groomed for a stable life with a steady income, professions or vocations where being in the top 1 percentile does not assure you success are a strict no no.

Recently, Michael Kim said that he did not know if he was good enough to play on the Tour until six months before turning Pro, and that was after playing the US Open.

That gives an idea of the passion and courage of a Chennai school goer deciding to take up Golf as a career. Is desire alone enough? Is the fact that you are better than most of the players in your club good enough to push you into the big league? These questions are applicable to any sport, but more so to golf which is still considered an elite sport by many.

It is even harder to figure out all this when you are still in school where your peers are gravitating towards the time tested mould of career-defining professional courses either here or abroad.

But at thirteen years, Pranav Nandakumar decided to chase up a not-so-common goal : the CBSE student decided to research American universities that offer a chance to play golf. From amateur to Pro is a long road, but the sparky kid says he is prepping for a shot at the top.

Swinging glory: most school students who plan to head to the US for undergraduate study have a lot of resource material to fall back on, when it comes to applying for higher education.

During high school, Pranav started scouting potential universities and reached out to coaches, undeterred when some of them failed to respond; he simply kept following up.

Throughout the process of seeking and gaining admission, Pranav says he focused on his academics as well. Concurrently, he sat for both SAT and TOEFL, and finally got into the college of his preference last year.

“Most colleges are test optional, so just high school grades and good essays are enough. If you have good grades and write a good essay,

you can pick top colleges,” says the 18-yeard-old, who is heading back to Knox College, Atlanta, after a summer break back home where he lit up the courses at Cosmo TNGF and Madras Gymkhana Golf

(MGC) Annexe. He won two Open events and was part of the MGC team that successfully took on the Bangalore Golf Club (BGC) in the two-day inter club match (this is the 146 th year of the tournament) .

Beefing up: There is a lot of difference between the school kid who left these shores and the college student who returned for a break. And it shows. His confidence level has gone up even further.

One reason for that is the training he received in the US. A lot of decision making is allowed there. For example when Pranav wanted to stick with his coach here, the college coach in the US appreciated and did not interfere too much.

“He provided the platform for me to improve,” adds the youngster whose one mantra is “to keep improving,” “I worked extensively on each aspect of the game until I was confident I could perform at the top level.”

He is realistic enough to know that there are more students competing for the slots worldwide and he has a Plan B in hand. However, he is focused on his Plan A. With his skill and self-confidence, he hopes to make Chennai proud.