Asian games | Winning in Jakarta will be one of the best victories, reveals Harimohan Singh
Harikumar Singh has asserted that if he can win a medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta, it would be one of the best victories of his career. Harikumar, along with Aadil Bedi, and Rayhan Thomas, added that their primary reason for playing golf on the highest level is to achieve titles for India.
Rayhan Thomas started playing golf at the age of seven years just because he liked hitting something hard. Aadil Bedi fancied golf because it was a good substitute for batting in cricket - a sport that his father didn't want him to pursue. Harimohan Singh liked the thrill of watching the 1.7 inch pockmarked ball soar high in the sky and this made him take up golf as his passion.
The trio’s childhood fascination has become their lives’ primary pursuit. All three are looking to play golf at the highest level, where Indians are still struggling to make a mark. For now, however, the focus is on the Asian Games, where they will represent the Indian men’s golf squad along with Navjit Shitij Kaul.
Apart from Kaul, the rest of the golfers are at the Karnataka golf association’s
“Playing a pro event, not a lot of people are there. But at the Asian Games, the whole nation is behind you. If I win the medal there, that’ll be one of the best victories,” Harimohan said.
To participate in the Asian Games, he hasn’t turned a professional yet. A professional golfer cannot represent their country in the quadrennial event. But the 24-year-old almost missed the opportunity that he’d been waiting for for years. On the first day of the trials of the Asian Games, Harimohan came last. He really thought that he wouldn't make it to the final cut but he didn't give up and qualified on the last day.
“I didn’t give up hope. I gave my 100%
Harimohan reckons golf isn’t an easy sport to pursue in India because of the high expenditure of time and money.
“You can’t expect better results overnight, or a week or in a month. It takes years to practice and reach where you want to be,” he added.
17-year-old, Aadil Bedi, is waiting eagerly for the Asian Games, which will be his first multi-sport event and therefore he is really excited about everything and aspiring to perform the best of his ability.
“Golf is an individual sport. So every chance we can play as a team, we take it. There are only
Aadil is representing India at the Asian Games because he started playing the sport at four. He’d asked his father, after watching him play at the Chandigarh Golf Association, for a small club. Like most aspiring golfers of that age he, too, was amazed and inspired by Tiger Woods’s continuous feats of genius.
“I was amazed by the things that he could do as an athlete, he could do as a golfer. I just wanted to become like that,” Aadil said.
Aadil shall turn into a professional in the upcoming October-November period and then, the PGA tour is where he aspires to be. He wants to achieve victories over there and he is determined enough to focus on steadily moving towards his goals and ambitions with his current focus being the Asian games 2018.
Rayhan's journey with golf began as a seven-year-old in a golf store in Dubai, where his dad had gone to repair some clubs. He picked up a few clubs that stood on the side and started hitting the ball, as hard as he could, into a makeshift net there. A year later, he joined the junior development programme at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. Within another 10 years, he became the first amateur to win a MENA Tour event.
Rayhan has also been really positive about his and his team's performance at the Asian games because he believes that the playing conditions in Jakarta are very similar to the conditions over here at the KGA’s golf courses and hence it won't be a big deal to get accustomed to it. Competing with the best players in Asia on a course at the TAKE Solutions Masters 2018, are similar to the one in Jakarta will help.
Rayhan has been having a good bonding session along with his teammates in Karnataka where they have been playing the TAKE Solutions Masters 2018. He believes that interacting together will make them understand each other's mindset about the game and make their team stronger.
“I think the fact that we are a team makes us want to interact more. So, we track our schedules, events we are playing, our games and things like that. We stay together in our camps,” Rayhan concluded.
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