Memoriam to a golf guru and ever patient stalwart

By Rahul Banerji

Colonel Bhupendra Kumar Singh passed away on Saturday. He was 75. He was also one of my earliest golf gurus.

BK as he was universally known served in the Indian Army till his retirement. He then settled down, built his family a home, and took to golf on an almost daily basis. Nine holes as often as he could manage, building up a close circle of friends, as happens so often.

In my early days on the golf course, BK was a frequent presence. Journalists keep bad hours and it was not always possible to join the early-starting group. When we did get opportunities to play together he was a fount of information, technique and tips.

BK’s great strength was his correctness. Blessed with a model swing, he enjoyed sharing his knowledge, often urging me to read Ben Hogan’s classic Modern Fundamentals of Golf and discussing basics. At that ignorant stage, many discussions and ideas almost completely passed me by.

But they left an impression, and planted the roots of a shared love of the game.

Above all else, I will forever remember with gratitude the kindness and patience of BK and his group for a determined — if erratic — beginner.

Golfers by and large are a compassionate tribe. It is a harsh game and spares no one. So watching mishits, missed hits and everything in between is almost second nature for anyone who has a club in hand. It is how they deal with a dejected, low in spirit fellow-member that is the difference.

Knowing BK, he will not waste much time in seeking out Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Sam Snead to discuss the finer points of stance, grip, swing and snap.

And who knows, he may even get up a foursome to tee off for a round on his beloved back nine sometime soon.

Happy swinging, BK Sir.

Slip-sliding away

As with the rest of the under-performing Indians at the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia, the golf unit too was unable to match expectation and performance.

Fielding a mammoth 804-member contingent of whom 572 are athletes and the rest coaches and officials, India are way down the medal tally in seventh place with just 31 medals so far after 10 days of competition, trailing the likes of even Thailand and Taiwan.

On the golf course, the men in particular started strongly but faded away over the last two days. After initially being in medal contention, Rayhan Thomas and Aadil Bedi finished tied 13^th. Japan’s Keita Nakajima took golf, Seungtaek Ho of South Korea the silver and China’s Cheng Jin the bronze.

In the team event, the squad that also had Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Hari Mohan Singh, were seventh overall with Japan, China and South Korea taking gold, silver and bronze respectively.

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