17 July,2011 09:22 AM IST | | Lhendup G Bhutia
With iron rods picked off from construction sites and gas pipes made into grips, a new version of golf is being played in slum alleys. Lhendup G Bhutia drops in at a slum named Behind Golf Hole No. 10 in Chembur for some teeing
The Bombay Presidency Golf Club (BPGC) in Chembur is often described as an oasis of 85 acres of lush greenery. The only screen that keeps this oasis secluded from the din and muck of slums around it, is a large, tough wall that encircles it.
Twenty five year-old Suresh Ramesh Mehboobani, who works as a caddie
at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club, prepares to take a shot over a drain
in a slum area in Chembur. Pics/ Vikas Munipalle
Some 30 minutes away on foot from the main entrance to the club, stands a neighbourhood which the locals have named Behind Golf Hole No. 10. This area is a cluster of some 50 huts near the 10th golf hole in the club. Every few months, a few huts are razed and the locals are left homeless, but they return to set up new homes with unfailing regularity.
Scribbled on the walls of Mehboobani's one-room house are the words,
u00a0'I love golf'. Seen here, with his friends and two-and-a-half year-old
nephew
It is from one of these huts, where no more than four people can sleep in a row, that 18 year-old Sachin Ashok Salve emerges, his golf shirt neatly tucked into his black trousers, wearing an original but faded Nike golf cap.
He is accompanied by his neighbour, 18 year-old Rohit Bhagwan Jadhav. The two, like most youngsters in the locality, work as caddies at the club. But with incessant rain on the July morning we meet them, they are off from work, and indoors.
As the afternoon sets in, the rains let up. So, with iron rods gleaned from construction sites -- twisted at the end to resemble a golf stick -- gas cylinder rubber pipes put over the rods to serve as grips, and Rs 5 worth plastic balls (often pink, green, or yellow), the two head out to play a round of golf -- in the by-lanes of a slum.
A corner in caddie Mehboobani's house, where he keeps expensive golf
clubs and balls donated by well-wishers, along with the iron rod sticks
and plastic balls that he plays with
The venue is friend Suresh Ramesh Mehboobani's neighbourhood. Mehboobani, a former resident of Behind The Golf Hole No. 10, who also works as a caddie, moved to a concrete house behind Jhamamal Chowk bus depot, 10 years ago, his roadside clothes-seller father having saved enough money to do that. The houses here are cheek by jowl, so much so that one of Mehboobani's windows opens into the premises of a temple.
In a puddle-ridden dump yard near Bombay Presidency Golf Club,
Sachin Ashok Salve clears pebbles near the ball, before taking a shot
The three, joined by another caddie Nagesh Devdas Bing (18), agree on a Rs 10 stake, with the winner taking it all. They set aside tables that have been placed in one corner of the by-lane. Underneath them are holes no bigger than the palm of an adult hand. The tables have prevented the holes from being flooded with rainwater.
The first to go is Mehboobani. Unlike the traditional 18-hole sport, here, there are only three holes. Mehboobani has to putt the ball, like in proper golf, with the least number of strokes. Except that here, he has to ensure that the ball lands somewhere near the hole, avoiding the walls of neighbouring homes, and a drain that gurglesu00a0 on one side. Bing stands at one turn of the by-lane, Salve on the other. They request pedestrians taking the by-lane to wait for Mehboobani to complete his shot.
While there is loud music blaring from a nearby home, Mehboobani concentrates, positioning his feet carefully, looking intensely at the hole, some 70 yards away, before taking a mighty heave. "Shit!" he says in English, an imitation, in all probability, of what he has heard golfers utter when they misjudge a shot. Mehboobani's ball has ricocheted off a wall and landed on a rooftop. His next shot is going to be from that slippery corrugated roof.
The others don't fare any better, and within 15 minutes, the game is over. Mehboobani has won a total of Rs 40.
This might seem an odd occurrence, but in these parts, every holiday is an opportunity to tee and putt. A full game would normally consist of three holes, but in bigger tournaments, they go up to five holes. These large tournaments, organised at different venues in slum areas, every three months, see as many as 70 participants, with each of them paying a registration fee of Rs 100. While a major chunk goes as prize money, often as much as Rs 5,000 -- a significant amount -- is set aside to buy a small trophy. "A trophy is a must. Otherwise, how do you acknowledge a player?" asks Salve.
In this version of the game, participants use two kinds of iron sticks -- a heavier one is used for long shots, and a lighter one for putting. Also like the traditional game, obstacles are placed. But while in the original game, one comes across sand and water, here, there are more obstacles. Golfers have to sometimes make shots from large mounds of garbage, or even an abandoned cartwheel. Often holes are placed in such a way that shots have to be made over houses or under large water tanks.
Sanam Merchant, a well-known golfer in the city who runs Sanam Merchant Golf Academy (SMGA), says, for the likes of Mehboobani, this is often their only opportunity at playing the sport. "The city has only three golf clubs, and lifetime membership can cost over Rs 25 lakh."u00a0 And with expensive gear (a golf ball alone costs over Rs 350) and costly golf tours, one can understand why golf is considered a rich man's game.
None of the four friends follow the sport on television or are aware of international golf stars like Tiger Woods. In fact, Mehboobani has an album of his photographs taken with celebrities who have visited the club. He shows this to every house guest. These include cricketers Kapil Dev and Ajay Jadeja, former athlete Jeev Milkha Singh, and actress Deepika Padukone's sister, Anisha.
Apart from working as a caddie, Mehboobani has played amateur golf. He wants to play at a professional level, but lacks the funds. In his crammed one-room house where he lives with his sister, mother and father, an entire corner is devoted to his equipment consisting of golf sticks, balls and shoes donated by well-wishers at the club. He plans to use these if and when he turns professional. In the midst of these stand some iron rod sticks and plastic balls.
"As a child, instead of going to school, I would climb a broken wall and watch people play golf at the club," he says. Often, miscued shots would land the ball outside the compound and Mehboobani would find and sell them back to the club for Rs 5. Soon, he got work as a ball boy and later, a caddie.
Bing, who at the age of 14, discontinued his class 6 studies to work as a ballboy, says, "The first thing I had to learn at the golf club was to be quiet. Now I have brought that to my game when we play outside. Newcomers yell and scream while playing. They don't know how real golfers play." Their good-humoured disposition aside, for the friends, rains are especially difficult. As caddies, they earn Rs 200 for every 18-hole game and on an average, make around Rs 4,500 to 5,000 per month.
Monsoon means players don't turn up. Bing considers himself lucky if he gets a nine-hole game (a shortened version of the 18-hole game) per day, which would fetch him Rs 100. "There are over 200 caddies at our club. We get to the club by five in the morning, after which we get work according to a lottery system," says Salve, who has taken up a two-year diploma course in computer hardware, hoping to fall back on it, if he is unable to make it in golf.
Mehboobani, however, also works as an assistant coach in SMGA. Merchant says, "Ever since I started playing golf in 1999, Suresh has been my caddie on many occasions. I realised he was a talented boy who knew the game well. So, I offered him a job at my academy." Mehboobani earns around Rs 16,000 for the two months that he works at SMGA.
Merchant adds, "Growing up in an area so close to the golf course, and seeing the game on a daily basis, gives many of them dreams of playing professionally. Sadly, unless they receive sponsorship, their plan is unlikely to work out." Bing, however, doesn't seem to have factored this.
When asked why he carries his own iron rod sticks, he says, "My height is different from the others. If I use a stick that is not proportionate to my height, in the long run, my back will hurt." He then adds earnestly, "A bad back will hamper my performance when I turn pro." I did not have the heart to tell him what Merchant told me. Something other than just his back would have been hurt.u00a0
Volunteers who wish to help the group or play this version of golf can contact Suresh Ramesh Mehboobani on 9870189899.
Your guide to putting it right
A standard round of golf typically consists of eighteen holes that are played in an order that is determined by the layout of the golf course. On a nine-hole course, a standard round consists of two consecutive nine-hole rounds
Playing a hole on a golf course is initiated by putting a ball into play by striking it with a club on the teeing ground. When the initial shot on a hole is a long-distance shot intended to move the ball a great distance down the fairway, this shot is commonly called a 'drive'. Shorter holes are generally initiated with shorter clubs called irons.
Once the ball comes to rest, the golfer strikes it again as many times as necessary using shots that are variously known as a 'lay-up', an 'approach', a 'pitch', or a 'chip', until the ball reaches the green, where he or she then 'putts' the ball into the hole.
The goal of getting the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible may be impeded by obstacles such as bunkers (or sand traps), water hazards, and areas of long grass called 'rough' that both, slow any ball that falls on it and make it harder to advance a ball that has stopped on it.
The game can be played either individually or in groups. Players are accompanied by caddies, who carry and manage the players' equipment and are allowed to advice them on the play of the course. A caddie's advice can only be given to the player or players for whom the caddie is working.
