Sunday, August 23, 2009

With Bag And Baggage


Golf courses have taken the definition of a long ride from the busy city to some serene, albeit ridiculously out-of-the-way, oasis. The Indian Open, then, with its almost-permanent home at the Delhi Golf Club, was something we looked forward to with great enthusiasm. Where else could you expect to see a congregation of the region's finest without having to endure a long ride to nowhere.

But unfortunately, what was talked about in hushed tones has now been confirmed. The annual, week-long rite of the 'national open' will now have to proceed to DLF in Gurgaon. It is rather unfortunate because the history-rich course at DGC was the first-ever venue for the tournament when it started in 1964. And from then on, the course had played host to it each time Delhi held the event, except in the 2000 and 2001 editions. It was the pretty, but unacceptably remote Classic Golf Resort that played host those two years.

For the DGC, which decks out in its best finery each year with an almost festive ambience for the Asian Tour tournament, this is the second bit of bad news this year. Earlier in the year, in readiness for the Indian Masters, an elaborate reseeding programme had been undertaken. Then came the news that the European Tour tournament was off for the season.

The Arnold Palmer-designed DLF Golf & Country Club did host to the star-studdded Johnnie Walker Classic last year. But even back then, with Jyoti Randhawa in contention, the crowd was considerably thin as the final-round Sunday clashed with Sachin Tendulkar putting on a spectacular show at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

We guess it will be a while before golf is for the fans in India. What count, for now, are the corporate marquees and elaborate setups for the beer-guzzling 36-handicappers who have no idea what to do with their hefty bank balances.

But addicts we are and addicts we will be and when the second Thursday of October comes our way, we will make the pilgrimage to the 46th edition of the Indian Open. After all, we did go to the SAIL Open, didn't we?

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cutting His Teeth

At the Brunei Open

There's a new name fluttering on the top portion of the Asian Tour leaderboards, and no, Gaganjeet Bhullar is not who we're talking about. Chinnaswamy Muniyappa, he of the flashy pants and disarming smile, has suddenly discovered the joy of weekend golf at tourist-brochure Asian destinations and the tour rookie has decided to make the most of his new-found passion.

Bangalore's Muniyappa, who had cracked the Qualifying School examination at the beginning of the year along with Anirban Lahiri to get his card for the year, had since not managed to last four rounds for any continental tournament, except the SAIL Open on the birdie-blessed home soil at Gurgaon's Classic Golf Resort.

Then suddenly, at the Brunei Open, one bravely held together round of two-under 69 and another damage-control one of one-over 72 squeezed him onto the Saturday tee times, and he responded with a course-record nine-under 62 third round.

The soaring gusts of a tied sixth place on the leaderboard going into the last day do strange things with the mind. The 32-year-old finished with another one-over 72 and in tied 13th place there, and has since made two cuts in two tournaments, with a tied 15th at the Selangor Masters. "I would keep thinking of all my missed cuts. It is not a nice feeling, and I kept putting myself under more and more pressure each time it happened," Muniyappa, back home for the first time in four weeks as he plays the Tamil Nadu Open from today, told us. "With Brunei, I became freer, and that's making me putt better, play better," Muniyappa said.

But the sudden burst of flights of fancy has not caught hold of his planned targets. "I'm not going to start of talking of winning already. I need to play a few more leadergroups before that happens, or I'm ready to do that. I played the second-last group in Brunei on the final day, and it just felt very different from any of the other pairings," he said.

So it's just a top-65 that he's targetting this year, making sure he gets better tournaments next season. Also on the checklist is a quick second win at home. Last November's Toyota Altis Open at home in Bangalore was Muniyappa's first pro win, and he wants another, not least because it helps incoming sponsorship. It also means a lot of confidence and a bigger profile. "Playing in Asia, with the big names of the region, is great. Earlier, I would get a bit intimidated when playing with players like Mukesh Kumar, for instance. He's won so many titles. Now I know that when I have to play with him on the home tour, I will be fine," he said.

A trip to Malaysia's Twin Towers during the Selangor tournament week was also the first bit of sightseeing he'd done all season, but it's golf-course exploration the late bloomer hopes to continue doing more of from now.

Picture courtesy: asiantour.com

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Crouching Tiger, Smiling Yang


PGA Championship - Final RoundMajor triumph: A first for Asia

A few hours back, as the familiar drone of night gave way to the first signs of morning, Asian golf woke up to a new dawn. Looking the Tiger in the eye all the way through, Yang Yong-eun scripted his finest golfing moment and in the process became the first golfer from the region to clinch a Major.

With the final round slated for a late-night start and promising to go on till the early hours of Monday morning, staying up was a risky proposition. It has been a year where the Majors have been plagued by anti-climatic finishes but the thought of delicious golf likely to be served up through the Minnesota-afternoon was too tempting to be given a pass.

It was a day when the putts dried up for Tiger. The familiar grimace enveloped his face and with each passing hole, the crouch lasted longer, became more painful. In sharp contrast, the 37-year-old Korean embraced the occasion, a smile never too far from his face, and played attacking golf all the way through, a trait unknown to those who walk the course with the world number one on a Sunday afternoon. Nothing described Yang’s game more perfectly than his approach on the 18th as he went straight for the pin, from a less-than-perfect spot, nearly 200 yards back, and the ball finished in birdie range. He promptly converted the putt and went on to punch the air in delight, the celebration, if anything, a touch muted keeping in mind the enormity of the achievement.

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One couldn’t help but feel sorry for Harrington as the Irishman, for the second week running, made love with the green-side water body on the par-3 8th, ran up a snowman and effectively buried his chances of a title defence. And this time around, we’ll have Tiger know, there was no John Paramour chasing Paddy down with a stick.

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Oh, and for all the chants that will greet Yang on his arrival back in Jeju Island, there is one man who will not be very thrilled about it. Jeev Milkha Singh may have had a tough week but there was still the knowledge of automatically qualifying into the International team for the Presidents Cup that would have kept him perky. That was until Mr Yang charged to the title and pushed Jeev out of the top-ten international players in the rankings list. The Indian will now have to hope for Greg Norman to look at him with a kind eye, much like in this picture from the Open-:


Image courtesy: www.asiantour.com

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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Heartbreak In Brunei


By the time we figured out the best source for information, the starter at the Brunei Open had swiftly seen off all the groups, a handsome lunch and most of Kate and Leopold. Well, maybe not, but a malfunctioning Asian Tour scoreboard left us panic-stricken, and desperately hunting for updates from the final round. When we did chance upon scoring solutions, Gaganjeet Bhullar had pulled away, quite like the railway carriages that Kapurthala is famous for, with the now frequent, and much appreciated, birdie blitz.

Yup, he went birdie birdie birdie and was in the mix, and another title was firmly in sight. But Boonchu Ruangkit did enough on the front-nine to stay ahead of a bunch of contenders. When Gagan finally held a share of the lead, for the first time this week, it seemed like all of Brunei was tied for first place. With four men on top, the tournament had clearly turned into a delightful Sunday afternoon of competitive golf.

Australian Darren Beck enjoyed a great run on the homeward-nine, but a 65 put him at 13-under, a shade short of what we thought would be the winning score. But how wrong we were. The Aussie duo of Scott Barr and David Gleeson fell away, Gagan bogeyed the par-5 15th to join Beck and Boonchu Ruangkit looked set to do a “Tom Watson”.

To be honest, and incredibly mean, it would be fair to say that he actually did a “Tom Watson”, bogeyed the last hole and brought upon us a three-man playoff. While he slipped away on the second playoff hole, Gagan took Beck to another hole but that was as far as he could manage. Beck birdied the third playoff hole and clinched his maiden Asian Tour title.

Darren Beck: A worthy winner


Come to think of it, an almost win, a first for Muniyappa and a fairly good Sunday showing for Chiragh Kumar and Anirban Lahiri must be considered pretty satisfactory.

Oh, and if you had forgotten, Beck is the same guy who held the lead, ever so briefly, during the Indian Open when Liang Wen-chong decided to liven things up at the Delhi Golf Club. So, we will have to agree with Gagan when he says, “It was a long overdue win for Beck.”

And yes, before you sue us, the reference to Kapurthala is not an original. It was mouthed by Mr Wilkins, and it was surely cool enough to be aped.

Image courtesy: www.asiantour.com

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Deep Blues


Some things just make you want to tear you hair out in agony and disappointment. Just when we thought what a perfectly safe round Arjun Atwal was playing at the Buick Open -- the same day when one with the name of Tiger Woods had found himself a ball magnet inside the Warwick Hills holes -- and how delightful it was to see an Indian name hovering around the topmost quarter of the leaderboard, he went and got himself in the worst possible red mist, getting a penalty drop and then making a four-putt on the same hole. Four putts? It should be made a crime in our opinion to do that.

Well, what do we end up with? A double bogey on a par-four and a triple-bogey on a par-five. From five-under for the tournament after 14 holes, Atwal was level-par after 16, tied for the 112nd spot, and making some travel agent out there a little busy.

The first round had been messy for sure, with two bogeys and a double, but he had made enough birdies to keep the damage low and stay at just one-under. There have been just too many mistakes from Arjun, despite his obvious form considering the number of birdies he's been managing to make. That's the fourth cut he's missed in four tournaments since returning to the Tour.

Cheer us up a bit, Arjun.

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Muniyappa Comes To The Party

We thought we would give the scoreboard a quick glance before heading off for a "mass tete-a-tete" with Lewis Hamilton. And when we did our usual leaderboard scouting, we found Gaganjeet at seven-under and had almost closed the window before we caught sight of Chinnaswamy Muniyappa a little bit higher. The Bangalorean raced up to tied third when he finished, with a round of nine-under 62 at the Brunei Open.

We surely didn't see that coming. After having turned pro in 1997, Muniyappa has been a journeyman on the domestic circuit, securing his maiden title last year in his native city, at the Toyota Open, a 20-lakher played in Eagleton. Having made close to two lakhs in the first season of the PGTI, he shot up the merit list and took home a little over Rs 18 lakh in prize money last season. And after securing his full Asian Tour card at the Q-school earlier this year, Muniyappa was deemed ready to step it up on foreign soil

But before today, he had never made the cut in an Asian Tour event outside India and therefore to expect him to do something spectacular tomorrow would be hoping for a bit too much. But, that is exactly what we will be doing. This just sounds exciting, to be waking up on a Sunday morning, looking for great play from more than one Indian player.

In May this year, he was tied for the lead in the early stages of the DDA Open but the Delhi heat was too much to handle for him and he slipped away towards the end. The pressure will definitely be on him when he targets a high finish, possibly a win tomorrow. For the 32-year-old, who brings in each new year with the chorus of birthday wishes, tomorrow could mark a new dawn in his professional career.


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