2008 Negeri Masters Pro Am at SIGC.

Friday, July 11, 2008. 

I'd wanted to write earlier but got distracted by something else. Watching golf on Astro just now got me thinking I should say something before the details desert me. I'd never, in all my golfing years, participated in a Pro Am. On the 8th of this month I decided to do so, and find out what I can learn from it. 

This particular tournament, I believe, was earlier shrouded with some controversy about sanction or something, which brings to me the first observation here. There's way too much politics in Malaysian sports. Just pick up the papers (I've stopped buying them since the GE12) or turn on the tv(I've also stopped watching the local stations since GE12). It's not only distracting, it's downright counterproductive to sports development as a whole. Except for badminton(for historical reasons), bowling, squash and sepaktakraw, we have had no world champions in any sport. With our 25 million, we are comparable to Australia, bigger than New Zealand and each of the Scandinavian countries. We know Australia has world champions in practically all sports, while New Zealand and the Scandinavian countries have more than their share. 

I was paired with one S. Kumar, a 24-year old pro from New Delhi, who have played in Malaysia many times. He was late to report to the tee, very unprofessional. He was no bigger than me, but belted the ball about 60 meters further with an easy swing. Of course he speaks excellent English, but was very quiet throughout the whole round, so nothing to learn there. Observing him, I could pick up his calmness in going about his game, not letting his unfamiliarity with the course and his less than stellar performance upset him. He was also unemotional, only shaking his head quietly whenever he missed makeable putts, and there were many. 

The one thing that impressed me was the accuracy of his shots to the green, very much helped by the yardage book provided. So, I thought, this is how they go about it, with the yardage book, like the ones we see the pros use on tv. In fact on several occassions I asked him for my own yardage, using his book, and was able to make the right selection of clubs. You see the red and yellow spots they paint in the fairway - they are not regular distances marked out with painted stakes that we see on most courses in this country. I saw that those markings were spotted in the yardage book, giving out such critical distances of 60, 78, and 114 meters to the edge of the green !

I fared rather well that day, and on looking back, I feel the yardage book helped tremendously. No wonder we see the pros taking forever consulting their precious books. One aspect of the game Kumar quite blithely ignored ( I'm sure he's aware of it) was the etiquette of allowing the "away" ball to play first. The other was not caring for the line of putt of the other golfers once on the green. In fact I was rather annoyed and especially disappointed with these breaches of etiquette. Maybe it had become "air ticket" to him and taken off ! 

 I had also expected to hear some comments from him regarding my game, you know, a better player giving one or two pointers. After all, these pros are surely fully aware of the amateur golfers' problems, and a good word here and there wouldn't hurt. We paid for the privilege of playing with them, dammit ! But I got nothing. 

So, it is with satisfaction that I can declare here that if we were to play "match play", I would have beaten S. Kumar of New Delhi, a golf pro 40 years younger than me, by one hole by way of the strokes that I could get from him. You see, I carry an 9 handicap. As a scratch player ( in fact he could possibly even carry a +3 handicap, which means an additional three strokes) he had to give me 9 strokes. I played  37 going out, to his 35, and was 4 up. Coming in I played a poor 43 to his second 35, but was 5 up after the turn. Then he caught up 4 holes including the last one, leaving me 1 up and game over. 

In terms of nett stroke play, I played -1 (71), while he played -2 (70). For a club amateur with a handicap 9, playing -1 is not bad. It means I was playing handicap 8. In fact Mubin said my name was called out for 10th Gross winner after dinner that night. But I had left early after hearing the Captain murder English in his welcome speech. The Gross winner and the Nett winner were both Police Officers, which could translate to how much golf they play. In fact the Gross winner scored an excellent 75, with an 8 handicap, which is 5 under, equivalent to a professional scoring a 67 - a Tigerish performance, indeed. He beat me by 4 strokes. Not too shabby for me, eh.

A number of Junior players also took part, including a few with known professional ambitions. But nobody scored better than gross 82 (which made my  gross 80 look even better !). I know some of them, as well as their parents. Actually in Malaysian sports the parents make the real sacrifices and are usually the real motivators for whatever achievements that we can claim pride for.  Just look at the list - the Choongs and Tans and Sideks in badminton, Davids in squash, Zulkifli in bowling, and now in Negeri Sembilan the Latiffs  (two increasingly famous sons, but many more in the talented brood). By the time the sports officials get their hands on these youngsters, some sort of self discipline had been instilled in them, so that in spite of the subsequent poor management they had continued to perform. 

So coming back to the juniors at SIGC, plainly I see no hope for any of the current crop. They are all 16 years or older, too old to remain untrained at this point of time. World champions just do not start learning at 16. In golf they have to be scratch players by age 12, and start winning local tournaments by age 15. These are the hard cold facts. All you have to do is look at the golf programmes in Thailand, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and of course Australia  for our region. Leave Europe, South Africa and the US for the purpose of this discussion, because they are entirely a different kettle of fish. We are fish out of the water in comparison.

I don't see how the authorities can help at the moment, unless their entire approach to sports development is overhauled. Even the proposed "Golf Academy" lacks the one vital ingredient for success - the teaching pro. This is not about letting kids belt golf balls at the driving range. There are many things involved - their education that they can fall back to, the management of the course in play, the sport psychology, sports medicine, nutrition, physical training, the techniques of the long game and the short game, the pacing of development to avoid burn-outs, and even the history of golf, which right now, with our juniors, is zero. You have to have a sense of history to be the best in your sport. Who do you look up to and what are you trying to achieve, if you have no clue about the origin and development of the game. 

That is why, for instance, there is right now widespread disbelief amongst golf enthusiasts that a certain American professional has declined an invitation to play at "the Open" - the British Open in England next week, the oldest and most prestigious, by world standard, golf tournament in the whole world. Thus this tournament is simply called  " The Open". And I say this because, like that American Pro Kerry, the USGA think they are at the centre of the golf universe. 

I have  finally participated in my maiden "Pro Am". Maybe next year, health willing, I'll try another one, perhaps with another more vocal, more helpful pro. I'll call it complete if Hank could join me. I'll spot him some strokes. At 60-20-20. That's the wager in RM's.

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