golf
charting a new course Arjun Atwal has survived difficult times to emerge a winner. Meet the self-assured, smiling putter who says he has many more victories ahead of him
By Neetinder Dhillon Photog ra ph s b y Su pa si t sr isawat hsa k
W
alking across the Delhi Golf Club to the ninth-hole green with his caddy and fan legions in tow, Arjun Atwal is forced to pause as he figures out a way to deal with an interruption of the feathered kind. Just inches from the ball he’s supposed to strike onto the elevated bank of grass, a peacock preens in all its glory, unmindful of the hordes of people standing around. While serious expressions are the players’ mask of choice on the third day of the 2010 Indian Open, Atwal simply laughs at the situation and waits, joking away with those standing closest to him. If the groups of kids following him around needed any more reason to assert their admiration for India’s only winner on the US PGA Tour, this was it. Trailing him from the first tee-off to the final hole through the four-day event, speaking in hushed voices about his stance, his swing, his technique and his sheer class, they don’t hold back once
the tournament ends. Surrounding him from all sides and clamouring for his autograph, cap or any other memento he’s willing to part with, the din of yells is almost astonishing, but Atwal, of course, is used to changing the course of expectations. Just as he did at the pristine reserves of the Sedgefield Country Club. If one were to go by the headlines alone, he came out of nowhere to win his first PGA title. A rank newcomer, a Monday qualifier, a lonely Indian in a distant land taking on the world. The stuff of Bollywood films. But sit down with the man himself and he dismisses the hackneyed image with a wave of
clubber
Motivated and focused with no hint of arrogance, Atwal, India’s No. 1 golfer, comes across as relaxed and at peace.