Showing posts with label International. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International. Show all posts
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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Friday, July 31, 2009

Ace That!

We know this is the Buick Open week, but we still can't get over the aces that pelted the course at the Canadian Open and the BMWs in tow. And while Arjun's hole-in-one and the car that came with it had us all excited, you cannot miss this amazing ace by Leif Olson-:



Goliiards, is it? Nope, good ol' golf with a dash of luck!

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Golf And The Gita


When we look back at the history of movies on golf, Legend of Bagger Vance, unfortunately, gets drowned out in the din. To be honest, we must strike off the word unfortunate because with a star cast that boasts of Charlize Theron, Matt Damon and Will Smith, to produce a superficial, cliched take on "golf and life" is a big blunder. The script just seemed to have so much potential but it fell short of expectations on the big screen.

But what draws us to this post is the connection between India and the movie, well, actually, the book, considering that the egg did come before the dud. Whoever said golf in India only goes as far back as the Scots who used to hack their way around the plains of Dum Dum in Kolkata in the early 1800s. The author of the book, Steven Pressfield, was so inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, at a time when he was struggling to pay off his rents, he decided to adapt it to a new novel.

Bhagavan, quite literally, came into his life-:

Bhaga became Bagger and van became Vance so Bhagavan became Bagger Vance. And just like Krishna guided Arjuna through the battle, Bagger Vance took it upon himself to revive Rannulph Junnuh's (name inspired by Arjuna) life, the protagonist, from being a drunken outcast to finding his way back into the people's heart by competing alongside Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen in an "epic" golf match on the Krewe Island(name inspired by, yup, you guessed it right-- Kurukshetra).

When it was announced that the book would be turned into a movie, there was a group that filed a case, saying that the movie "may hurt religious sentiments", and they were very concerned about how "god would be portrayed in the film". The National Council of Hindu Temples put out a statement saying, "Bagger Vance is a distortion of the Hindu word for God. Hindus will find it offensive to see Will Smith on the screen being called what is basically the word for god."

Do people get concerned, worried and offended too easily these days? The case was dismissed and the movie went on to be screened without a problem.

There was another book trying to ascertain the link between the Bhagavad Gita and golf. It was titled Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance.

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Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Rare Hole-in-one

As our aircraft fought its way through the monsoon clouds hanging low over the city of Pune, a sense of unease gripped the passengers. Not even Captain Collin James’ calm voice could fight off the mid-air turbulence.

But the rough treatment meted out to the jumbo jet was not close to what Emlyn Aubrey experienced as his flight headed from Pakistan towards Delhi.

20 years back, Emlyn, an American professional golfer embarked on his second trip to India to compete in the Indian Open to be played at the Delhi Golf Club. But no sooner had the flight taken off, he was greeted with a hole in the plane, or so goes the story. Narrating the incident to us, Emlyn says, “It happened on the way to Delhi in ’89. It wasn’t a “hole” but a separation between the wall and the floor. I could stick my whole hand in there. I saw daylight when the landing gear was down but thankfully it went away when the landing gear was raised for cruising.”

And how did he deal with the situation? “I remember covering the gap with my foot in hopes of maintaining cabin pressure. Silly, but true,” he answers.


And you think it’s rocket science?


The story had made its way across the Atlantic, and when he briefly flirted with the lead at the US Open later that year, the Chicago Tribune story read, “Emlyn Aubrey has seen snakes in the rough, wild monkeys in the trees and a hole in the bottom of an airplane at 25,000 feet. But none of his experiences on the Asian Tour could compare with the brief glimpse of his name atop the leader board in the 89th U.S. Open.”



But the dodgy flight is not his only connection to India. In 1994, Emlyn came back to India one last time and walked away with the Indian Open trophy at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club. Taking us back to his win, he says, “I had played there a few years earlier and I really liked the golf course. I just played well and ended up beating everybody that week. The champion’s party afterward was incredible: music, traditional dance and great food!”


Winning in Calcutta made the victory a little more special for him. “I think Royal Calcutta is the oldest golf course outside Great Britain. It is an honour to have played there,” he says.


His first impressions of India might not have been great but a visit to one special attraction was something that he cannot forget. “I am a bit adventurous, and once golf was done for the day, I was able to get out and sightsee. Of course no trip to India is complete without seeing the Taj Mahal. One of the best experiences I have ever had. If I had to choose one place to take my family, it would be there. To think it was built by hand and the materials they used… just mindblowing.”


Today, a 45-year-old Emlyn teaches golf at the Centernary College in Indiana. And the teacher would be more than happy to impart lessons to pupils from India.


But would he like to entertain thoughts of another flight from Pakistan to India? Well, the jury is still out on that one.

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Stuff Of Dreams

Fortunately, snuggling into my favourite chair, the Memorial Sunday had seemed to be warming up for a nice multiple-player battle, a perfect midnight watch. Unfortunately, the television had been reached to only midway through the round. Obviously, I hadn't seen the 11th-hole eagle, the inch-exact hitting all through that walk through Muirfield Village, the fact that all signs looked ominous for another episode of Tiger's One-Man Show.

The Masters Par-Three event quirkily makes me look at golfers slightly differently, and it was one image of Luke high-fiving Junior Donald last year that found a tiny soft spot in my heart for the Englishman. So, it was quite a delight to have seen him leading on Day 1 but Thursday was history. Sunday had begun with Tiger way back from the co-leaders and ended with two back-to-back jaw-droppingly magic approach shots and a super-quick judgement on exactly what he feels about doubts on his fitness, form, finesse ahead of the US Open.

It was all going through calmly before the feel of a Sunday afternoon marathon was wiped out by the quick sprint on the finishing leg by Woods, the pace too much for the potential challengers following him in the two groups behind. I rubbed the last remnants of sleep from my eyes, sitting 9 and a half hours ahead of Ohio time, as the ball landed for what looked a very makeable birdie on the 17th hole. Tiger broke out of the four-way tie with that birdie. And it was astonishment that had me rubbing eyes a few minutes later, with that inches-away second shot making sure that anyone hoping for a man-to-man play-off would have to get there with something very very special.

PGA Tour-watching in India takes a big toll on sane sleeping hours, but life finds new meaning with having watched a finish like this to brag about!

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