How Amaira Gulati is ensuring 'young prodigy in golf' is no longer an oxymoron in India

The very mention of golf in India until not very long ago conjured up a picture of some corporate honchos, retired bureaucrats or army officials indulging in an old man’s sports on rolling green expanses of elite clubs.

Not any longer. Shedding its colonial hangover, the golf courses have in the past years warmed up to a new set of enthusiasts — young and not necessarily ultra-rich or super privileged.

The morphing of golf from a niche hobby of privileged senior citizens to a dynamic sport in the beginning of 2000 led to the emergence of players like Jyotinder Singh Randhawa, Jeev Milkha Singh Rathore, Arjun Atwal, Anirban Lahiri and Aditi Ashok to name a few.They in turn are inspiring more and more young talents to make golf their passion. This has resulted in a gradual decline of age ceiling for players making ‘impact’ to the extent that the sport is now even producing child prodigies — a phenomenon that would have been considered an oxymoron even a few years ago.

One such prodigy to storm into the scene is eight-year-old Amaira Gulati. At this tender age, she has already played in more than 60 tournaments, winning around 50 titles with an impressive success rate of over 83 per cent.

Her talent was at full display earlier this month at Kolkata’s iconic Tollygunge Club.

Her breathtaking performance in the West Bengal State Golf Championship, hosted by the Bengal Golf Association from September 6 to 8, not only helped her lift the trophy in her age category but also won many hearts.

It was not an easy tournament for her. Amaira had to hit the course within hours of reaching Kolkata after a day-long journey from Sukna in north Bengal due to a sudden change in fixture.

Before the first match, she did not get time to practice or acclimatise with the Tollygunge Club’s 18 hole, 70 par golf course spread over 100 acres.

The acclimatisation was important because her practice turf, that is golf course in Sukna army base where her father is currently posted, is no match for the standard of the park in Tollygunge.

Lack of practice or adjustment issues did not weigh Amaira down. Like a true champion, she took the challenge in her stride and soon found her rhythm after some initial struggles. “She navigated the challenging course with unwavering focus and precision, showcasing a maturity beyond her years,” read a statement from the organiser.

On the second day, Amaira was simply on a roll making all the impacts with the precision of an ache golfer. Her angle of attack, back swing, bladed shots and unyielding focus had a stamp of class. Those who witnessed the game were unequivocal in their praise saying a rare talent was on display.

When Amaira took guard to make her winning putt on the last hole, it was raining profusely. But she maintained her calm and focus to pocket the victory. She ended the championship with the best score among all girls and boys of her age category. The prodigy has played 14 tournaments so far this year, winning in all but one where she finished second.

As though winning has been a habit, Amaira won almost all the major tournaments she played last year including the US Kids Tour Event held in Delhi.

The win in the US Kids tournament was special because it earned her a place in the US Kids Gold World Championship held in August this year in North Carolina’s Pinehurst, also known as the ‘cradle of American golf’, Amaira told The Federal.

She, however, could not ultimately participate in the tournament due to financial constraints.

“We could not arrange the kind of money needed for her to travel to the US and play a tournament there. Apart from that getting a visa also became an issue,” said her father Baljeet Singh, who is a colonel in the Indian army.

“We tried for sponsorship. But it was turned down on the ground that she was too young,” he added, underscoring a key bottleneck in nurturing young talents in India from a tender age.

Missing the world championship fortunately did not demoralise Amaira, who says her ultimate goal is to earn an Olympic medal for India. “I am preparing myself for that,” she said, her voice filled with determination.

Amaira’s idol Aditi Ashok missed a medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by a whisker, finishing fourth.

A grade three student at GD Goenka Public School in Siliguri, around 9 km from Sukna, Amaira took to golf at a very early age. She played her first tournament at the age of five. It was the Indian Golf Union North Zone tour in 2021. She finished third overall and was the youngest player of the tour.

Her parents Colonel Baljeet Singh and Harpreet Kaur noticed that their daughter had a special talent for the sport when during the Covid-period they started taking her to the golf course.

“My wife and I used to play golf. Naturally, we used to take Amaira to the golf course even when she was a toddler. She used to watch us playing. Seeing her interest in the game, we got her a plastic club. The way she played with it made us believe that she has a natural knack for the game,” Colonel Singh recalled.

Then Covid came as a blessing in disguise. Golf is a relatively safe sport to pursue in isolation. It was during this period that she started playing in the golf course in the army camp at Shahjahanpur, where her father was posted at that time.

Since then, Amaira has been packing quite a punch.

Another young talent making the right noise in India’s junior golf circuit is 10-year-old Ojaswini Saraswat.

A find of the Chandigarh golf club greens, Ojaswini held the prestigious title of the number one ranked player in her category bestowed by the Indian Golf Union for the last four years consecutively.

She also has her eyes set on winning a medal for the country in the Olympics.

With these young kids on the block, India’s golfing future appears to be on the right track.

The British imported golf to the Indian subcontinent in 1829 when they established the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC), the oldest in the world outside Great Britain. The club still exists.

The United States and many European countries took to the sport much later. But despite the early start, the sport did not catch the imagination of Indians the way football or cricket did, largely because of the high cost associated with the game.

“I have to spend around Rs 50,000 every month to ensure that Amaira can pursue her dream,” pointed out Colonel Singh.

To even avail a golf course to practice is a costly affair. The green fee — that is the money charged for renting out a golf course by the club that owned it — in India varies from anything between Rs 500 and Rs 5000 per day depending on the standard of the playing arena. A golf set containing a driver, a wood, a hybrid, seven sets of irons, and a putter cost about Rs 40,000 to Rs 2,00,000.

Things are changing as many clubs that own the golf courses are now giving special playing rights to the young talented players as part of their children development programme.

For instance, the Delhi Golf Society has extended special facilities to Amaira. She can now avail the society’s golf course for a nominal fee of Rs 1,500 per month.

That change is best defined by S Chikkarangappa, the son of a mason, who made it big in this rich man’s game.