New sultans of swing

As golf gets more popular in Gujarat, the age at which its players are getting proficient is falling. As more courses come up, players are taking up the game earlier and training harder. Two stars are making waves nationally at the junior level of the game.
For Varun Parikh — the nephew of a realtor who is the chairman of a golf course — proximity to the game and courses changed his life.“I was just taking a few swings at the range at the course when the course designer Col Bagga saw me and told my parents that I had a good swing and should take up golf seriously,” says the 14-year-old student of DPS Bopal.
Bagga’s words seem prophetic now. Varun qualified for the national level last year and is ninth on the national merit list. “I am now preparing for the national team and the amateur tour,” Varun says. “I hope to be among the top five amateurs in the country in five years.” There is no reason for him not to. He is training in Bangalore under Vijay Divecha, who has coached top golfers like Anirban Lahiri.
Arya Chudasama, 14, a student of DPS Gandhinagar, has been creating a buzz too. He is playing in the West Zone competition and has had a string of fantastic results. At the West Zone tournament at the Wellington Golf Course in Mumbai in May, Arya finished first. To show that it was no flash in the pan, he came up with finishes of 2nd and 3rd in the next two tournaments too. He is now No.1 on the West Zone merit list. Arya’s start in golf came from proximity as well. “Our family lived in Canada and my dad would take me along to the driving ranges when I was around seven,” he says. “I began playing mini-golf then and hitting balls at the range later. When we moved back to Gandhinagar, a course was nearby so I began playing there, and realized that this is what I want to do.”
Arya says he is catching up though he suffered from the lack of quality coaching in Gandhinagar. He too is now training under Divecha and is working hard to make up for lost time.
New tourneys coming to Gujarat
For the first time ever, there will be junior IGU tournaments coming to the state. Two tournaments are slated to be held in Ahmedabad and two in Vadodara in August and September. That golf at the junior level is taking off in the state is widely acknowledged. Gulmohar Greens VPoperations Santosh Bapat says that over the past three years, efforts made to popularize the game have been paying off. “We have 35-40 kids taking the beginners’ training every summer, and we’re having to add new batches,” says Bapat.