Meet our professional

The following interview was done for a local publication, we include that on our website.

To become a PGA golf pro you have to complete around 4 years of training/apprenticeship at an approved centre. However to be selected for training, you have to have a very low handicap, less than 2 and nice if it is zero. The training includes many things from practising golf to understanding psychology and honing communication skills. It is like any other professional training - rigorous but fun. You do it only if you like it.

I presume Golf ahs always been your passion, have you been pro for long?
I started playing golf when I was a less than 10 and very quickly I realized, this was my true love and I had to do this all my life! Thirty years ago Golf was not as accessible and cheap as it is now and we had to really take the efforts and travel literally dozens of miles to first of all find golf courses that we could afford and secondly, find a time when kids would be allowed on the course. My family however always encouraged me and from my teens onwards I could commit more time to it. As people around me saw my game and improvements as an adolescent, the next obvious step was to make this as my career option and then I started working towards it.

What's your main advice to people who are thinking of taking up game?

Golf is a great game, which will be with you for the rest of your life. I myself was good at many games from basket ball ( Ed Martin is almost 6 and half feet tall ) to tennis and when I was young there was always this thought in my mind about which game gives me greater joy now and which game will last me for all my lfe. Golf will give you many more years of participation and hence the quantum of joy that golf gives you over a lifetime, would be far more than say football or tennis. That is why I tell youngsters to keep thinking of golf more than any other sport and to those in their 20s and 30s, I would say think of golf as something that will be with you for a very long time.

How young did you start playing golf? Is it true that Tiger Woods started when he was 3 ?

Legend says, Tiger sank a hole in one when he was 6. I guess if you let stories breed then perhaps his obstetrician could confirm that every kick Tiger Woods did in his intrautral life was more of a golf swing than a kick. I've seen children can take upto golf as early as 3s and 4's. Probably throwing a ball and kicking a ball could come before hitting a ball with a stick, but if we gave them suitable equipment, very young children atleast enjoy the thrill of making contact with the ball. There are golfing bodies promoting golf amongst juniors have talked about kiddy-golf and many golf courses have crazy golf included and children as young as 4 and 5 can start playing with this. More serious golfers could start at the age of 6. Young masters golf programme runs from 6 to 16 and at the Northolt Golf club, we are happy to take golfers genders 5 and 6 to start off with the gloves and the game. The most important thing is the child should enjoy his time and as a golf pro it is my job to try and make him discover the enjoyment easily.

Golf can be frustrating to learn after the initial phase and the improvement seems to stall, how does one overcome this?

Like most games, it is not difficult to start. For one to be able to hit a ball over a distance is not difficult. But as you start putting in more time, the distances that you can hit a the ball over will increase. There is a good sense of exhilaration to find that you can hit the ball a 100 yards and more and sometimes hit it beyond 200 yards. At that time most people will quickly check up the internet and find how many yards can Tiger Woods hit. However, once you move on to the next stage, which is playing at a golf course, reality sinks in. You then appreciate that playing golf is not about hitting the ball greatest distance, but hitting it accurately to a pre-decided spot. That's when it becomes important that you do things meaningfully and in a planned way so that your hits can be produced each and every time. That is where a little help from a golf pro can take you a long distance. There is no doubt that the improvement ahs to be in your mind and in the performance of your body but knowing the right way to practice and the right way to tune yourself will make it easier and simpler in the long run.

It is said that golf pros can sometimes spoil your natural swing and make things too complicated? Your comments please.

All of us take advice and most of us will benefit from advice. The trouble with advice is good advice and bad advice may sound the same at the point of receiving it. However, since all of us have been receiving advice for various matter from various points in our lives, very soon we realize that how to evaluate an advice. As a golf pro my simple mantra is to keep things simple. It is very important for me to identify what you are doing right as well as what not just you are doing wrong. The worst thing for a golf pro to do ever is to give so many corrections and suggestions that some thing is main pro butgood things may sort of may get lost as well. What we don't want to do is to do one step forward and 2 stepsbackward.. As I speak with my learners, I will not only analyse their style and their swing and their movements, but also bear in mind their state of mind and whether they are too nervous or apprehensive. All of us want results quickly but some of us may take that state of mind to a level of mental nervousness that will ruin many things. As a golf pro if I can help these matters then it will be an overall improvement, it will last. For me we keep things very simple and our mind of adjustment in the grip, which will make the person more relaxed is what I aim for. I don't believe that there is only one way to reach golfing heaven. All of us will find our own ways and as a golf pro my job is to support you in the way that you have found. We all can't swing like Nick Faldor Tiger Woods. We all can't drive 300 yards long drives and land the ball on the green everytime. We don't need to do that. Minor modifications and suggestions that I would give will not just improve your performance but will actually improve your appreciation of yourself and why you do what you do and that is the main emphasis of my teaching.

Most Golf pros will charge you upwards of £25 for half an hour sessions at a higher level of participation play and performance I too charge the higher side. However to encourage moregolfers and to enable them to play better the entry level at which I charge £25 for half an hour individual slot. However, to give “more bang for the buck” the half an hour session will almost extend to 45 minutes or a bit longer. The club also encourages 2-3 players to pool together and then we charge as less as £35 for a full hour session but 3 people sharing the time. Thisallows us to learn from each other's mistakes and style and the session also becomes more fun. The important thing however is to be sure that we are comfortable with each other and we are happy to be taught in the presence of others.

Making the first step from the golf range to the golf club is a big thing for most people, how do they bridge this mental block?

It is true that there are probably 10 times more people on the golf range than the golf courses. Many of those on the golf range will do feel stagnated and would want to do the “real thing” however, there is as you rightly said, a mental block and sort of a fear of the unknown. Again if you watched any masters tournament on television, s much as it is exhilarating, it's quite taunting for us to watch golf holes such as 500 and 600 yards, and still tobe expected and to be completed in 4 strokes or 5. To many senior citizens the thought of walking 3-4 hours through 7000 yards of ups and downs is not the most pleasant thoughts and that's where small courses like the Northolt Golf club come on their own. With the Northolt Golf club most of the holes are par 3 and there are par 4 holes as well which are around 270-yard mark. This lets you see the flag at the end of it and there are enough trees, bushes, and ditches and bunkers do not make it an easy thing for you, so there is a challenge but the also the feeling of “I can do it” . Besides, we encourage beginners to join the club, the members and other players are far more sympathetic and there are no laser-stares if we made a mistake anywhere on the course.

Is there anything the more experienced people can gain out of short courses?

The short courses as the Northolt Golf course is also suitable for more experience members who will look upon the golf course to improve their “short game”. What it means basically is if you imagine that on a championship course a par 4 pr par 5 hole is 500 yards away then your first drive from the Tee will take you around 250 yards and the greens is another 250 yards to be completed in 4 strokes. That is exactly where you start at a short course such as the Northolt Golf course. All that you have to imagine is you already taken one stroke and that puts the course at par with any other larger courses. At Northolt Golf course, the greens are intentionally small and that means you have to be very precise in landing a ball before you can putt in on the green. There is no point in getting high headed about the hole being only 270 yards and that you can drive 250 yards on a good day. It is the last 20-30 yards that will make you sweat! Unless you chip it properly, you are likely to fly off the green, so your game demands more skill, more concentration and more finesse at the end stage, which is chipping and putting. The hazard of being in bunkers is always true, is always there whether you are on a long course or a short course. Bunkers, require a certain amount of skill to get out of, especially when your greens are not too far and when they are not too large. Basically, it's a matter of there being enough fun whatever the layout of the course. Most people will play more than one course and having something like the Northolt Golf course in your playing schedule will only help your overall game