Don't suck the fun out of Golf! - by Rahul Bajaj

One of my fondest memories of playing pro-am’s was a trip to USA with 9 other Indian pro’s. We went down to the US for a period of 40 days and visited many cities via a road trip to showcase Indian golf to local communities there. This involved us playing various pro-ams at multiple locations. A dozen different cities at that. One of the things that struck me the most was “culture of golf”. Everyone involved in the pro-ams as amateurs, I mean everyone, had a very relaxed and a joyous take on golf. Now, that does not mean that they weren’t serious about their golf and the betterment of their handicaps. Their approach to their rounds was fun and coming from India, it was rather refreshing. As I have also played almost all over India in pro-ams thanks to my pro-career, I have had interactions with many of them and generally Indian golfers, that is, club golfers seem to be extremely serious about their game of golf. So serious, that they have managed to suck the fun out of the game completely.

This thought brings me to the point, did you start playing golf for fun or some sort of a battle with self to become more serious in life? Like if your life was not as serious already!  As a pro-golfer my approach to golf has always been of the serious dimension but as a club golfer who does this for recreation, I haven’t been abLe to understand the drift of being so serious about the game that we literally become uptight about it. We have not only sucked the fun out of golf for ourselves but our kids as well because when we initiate them into the sport, we teach them with so much seriousness likes it a job at stake.

If I remember correctly, sports essentially was a form of recreation and kids definitely play sports for the sheer amount of fun they have doing it. In the interest of golf across the board I urge you to try having some fun with your next weekend game, keep it casual, banter and maybe hit some flop shots. Golf can be a really fun game if taken that way.

Happy golfing!