Rest easy, Suri, golfing buddy, dogs’ best friend

CHENNAI: He went the way most of us want to, hope to. A week before he passed away due to a massive cardiac arrest, Surya Kumar S, Suri to all, met up with old golfing buddies and was the life and soul of the evening.

A few months ago, I happened to see him get into his buggy near the TNGF café, and proceed to the tenth hole to tee off. Sure enough, the biscuit coloured stray, came from wherever he usually rested away from the eyesight of golfers, hopped on to the buggy, sitting next to Suri like a conquering hero. At the tenth green, Suri patted him and the stray got off the buggy and walked back to his usual haunt. This was a ritual between the man and his adopted pet and it never failed to stop the golf traffic and bring a smile to everyone’s face. I can only say that everyone watched this live tableau, reverentially.

Long before caring for strays became a pet project and a bone of contention in equal measure between stake holders on two sides of the fence, Suri had demonstrated his capacity for caring for strays, with responsibility. It was not merely a kind word and a snack or two thrown at these abandoned dogs in passing, but whenever they needed a vet’s attention, he ensured they received it.

He touched human lives in a similar fashion. One of the first WhatsApp tributes to him said, “Suri was a beloved golfer, a man with a great sense of humour and a bon vivant. ...a Captain cool.”

Suri, who spent his childhood in Cuddalore before moving to Chennai and graduating from New College, took to golf in the 1980s. Along with VJ Bharat, Prabhat Kamal Gupta, and KJ Ramaswamy, Suri became one of the popular faces and names of golf in the city. Realising that it is fool hardiness to keep a Chennaiite from a hot dosa, “Suri was instrumental in ensuring there was a live dosa counter, way back in the 1980s at the golf course,” recall old timers.

Suri was also one of the galvanizing forces of Addicts golf and as Captain, worked steadily at making it popular in Chennai. He was the Addicts Captain in the years 2011 and 2012 and Council member of the Addicts representing Chennai for ten years. He last played the Addicts tournament in Chennai in September 2024.

It was around this time that I played with him, after a short hiatus. “In my early years, I used to play to well below eighteen (handicap),” he said.

“Now I am just happy to play in a competitive environment,” he said. Watching me look at his Honma golf set (almost new), he sighed and said, “My wife’s gift from above”. Suchitra Karthikeyan, their daughter, tells me that her mother had left a note to that effect when she passed away (three years ago). She wanted him to have that.”

In his wife’s passing Suri became a representative of today’s generation of widowers: he spoke of the loneliness and the struggle when one spouse is left behind. His one wish was to see his grandson Siddharth do well in life and that too materialized: Siddharth works for a fintech company in Washington DC.

A man of wide-ranging taste in music—from western rock to OP Nayyar to MS Viswanathan-- and one who could befriend people from across three generations, Suri was a byword for golf etiquette. He would be missed for many things by the golfing community of Chennai.