With picture postcard allure, golf gaining ground post-COVID
SNEHA, at 31, is curious about picking up golf. Prior to COVID-19, travelling and investing in experiences was her go-to mode of relaxation and socialisation. Today, in view of the pandemic, priorities and interests have changed, with golf gaining ground even among the early and mid-career age cohorts.
The sport of golf has many charms. The alluring beauty of the course seen from a bus under balmy weather and the apparent unhurried manner of the players, all hold out scenarios of ‘good life’ for the young professional. She has also heard fantastic tales of corporate big-wigs walking the course ahead of clinching several deals.
There are many stories of top bankers arriving for a round of early morning golf ahead of board meetings, as a way of sharpening their minds, since the sport helps you build mental focus. Today, we have social media to remind netizens of American Presidents hosting their visiting guests to a round of golf. After Aditi Ashok’s run for a medal in the well-televised Tokyo Olympics, Twitterati is fairly engaged with golf as well.
Immediately after the 2020 Olympics last year, most golf courses in the country received a lot of enquiry for admissions. Picking up the sport and being a regular player is quite easy if one hails from a ‘golfing family’. Such a person can apply for membership in a golf club and go through the admission process. Once membership of a club is on offer, the aspiring golfer might even have a complete set in the attic, which requires nothing more than dusting and changing the grips to get one on the course.
If you are not so privileged, getting started is a tad more involved. From finding a golf course, getting a golf set to start and finally learning to play, it is a journey that tests one’s mental and physical stamina – not to mention the stress on the monetary front. In the 70s and 80s, it was possible to become a member of a Golf Club, or at least a Golf Playing member of a club with a golf course, and then learn the sport. It is quite different now.
Learning the ropes
In the 1980s, one started with a coach who would give a one-hour session. You needed to hire a caddy and a forecaddie. The caddy for keeping the ball for you to hit and a forecaddie for bringing back all the balls you hit. By this stage in your life, you would have acquired a pre-owned ‘half set’ and about 50 ‘used’ balls to get you started.
Nowadays, one has to learn the sport as a guest player and then join the long queue for membership. There are no forecaddies as such. Instead, one has to learn on the driving range of a golf course (very few private ranges are available), having hired practice balls from the club, with a coach teaching you the basics.
The relationship between the coach and the learner cannot be better described than stated by the redoubtable PG Wodehouse. “He looked at the young man standing before him like a sculptor would view a mass of clay.” That sums up what a starting golfer undergoes in the hands of a coach. It is this phase in one’s journey that is the most chastising, humbling but ultimately rewarding. A small, stationary ball nicely placed on grass, a long, well-leveraged instrument in one’s hands, and huge volumes of space to send it sailing. What could be easier than hitting that ball hard and long? However, what happens next is often not what you want to talk about! Years later, one may share these stories as “Those were the days when quite a few fell down one foot from me when I swung the club the first time, and coach… simply watched me, unblinking. He did not say a word!”
Today, many coaches use technology – they capture your swings to show you where you went wrong and how to improve on the fundamentals. A teaching method that is par for the course for the more tech-savvy.