Golf champion Randhawa spreads the word in India

Jyoti Randhawa enjoys riding his 1000cc bike at breakneck speed on the highway in the night. By day, with the help of yoga, he is making his name as Indian golf's biggest ambassador.

Randhawa is one of a group of young players who have helped to make golf the fastest-growing sport in urban India, where cricketers are mobbed like movie stars but other sportsmen have traditionally attracted little attention.

The 2002 Asian PGA tour's order of merit winner has, in just a few years, dispelled early doubts with a combination of hard work, mental conditioning and sacrifice.

The 30-year-old Randhawa earlier this month became the first Indian to win the Asian tour crown with $266,263 in prize money, a meagre amount compared with the whopping $7 million Tiger Woods made this year but huge by Indian standards.

Randhawa considers his triumph a steppingstone for a future on the US PGA tour.

"It's my biggest achievement so far. I had not expected it to happen this year but looking at my career it's come at just the right time," Randhawa told Reuters.

"Now I can focus on making an international career for myself and qualify for the US tour, which is the Mecca of golf. I still haven't peaked but in a year or two I'll be at my best."

More important from the Indian perspective, perhaps, is that his rise to stardom is not an isolated case.

Arjun Atwal, now also a regular on the European tour, finished third in Asia. In the same week, Jeev Milkha Singh failed at the final hurdle to get a full card on the US tour but won a place on America's Nationwide circuit.

Early Stutters

Randhawa's early career was marked by starting-out stutters but the most telling blow came when he self-destructed during a gruelling playoff against Uttam Singh Mundy in 1998 in India's most lucrative domestic event.

Randhawa, it seemed then, had been found out as a choker. But he used the defeat as a motivating force, setting out to gain much-needed self-belief.

"I'm the kind of person who needs a few jolts from time to time," Randhawa says. "That was a real eye-opening loss for me. I wanted to hit back and prove my worth."

Just one month later, at the Asian tour's Indian Masters at Delhi Golf Club, the new Randhawa emerged.

He won the title by six shots against a tough international field and then sparked off an unprecedented run.

By the following season Randhawa had successfully defended his Masters title, won the Asian tour's Indian and Singapore Opens and married Tina, sister of fellow professional Digvijay Singh.

Then came regular visits to a sports psychologist and now a yoga instructor, who travelled with him to this year's season-ending event in Kuala Lumpur, has joined the camp.

"Yoga has helped me a great deal over the last few months. I have learnt several breathing exercises that make me relax, concentrate and allow me to push myself to the limit."

Road Accident

What is remarkable about Randhawa's win this year is that midway through the season he was walking with the help of a cane after an accident on one of his motorcycle escapades.

"I had never been used to staying home for six months doing nothing," says the avid horse-rider and trekker.

"That was when I figured I'd have to work twice as hard to succeed. I was backed into a corner and I had to fight back."

Randhawa did not miss a single cut after his return in September and raced to the top with a second-place finish to Ireland's Padraig Harrington in the Taiwan Asian Open last month.

But the slim, soft-spoken player has still not given up riding his motorbike.

"I'm sure my wife and dad are a little concerned when I go out now," he says.

"Going down the road at 200 kilometres an hour gives me a different kind of thrill, an adrenaline rush that I don't get out of golf. I'll give it up in a couple of years maybe."

Long Way

Randhawa believes the sky is the limit for Indian golf, which has come a long way in the last five years, from the time Gaurav Ghei became the first player to qualify for the British Open at Royal Troon in 1997.

Until then, the sport was seen as no more than a pastime for the aged and the Indian circuit was dominated by caddies-turned-pros, who used the sport as a doorway to a better life.

"We have to thank the caddy-pros for keeping professional golf in India alive. We may have improved it and I'm pretty confident we're going to rub shoulders with the best in the world in the next four or five years."

Not only have Randhawa, Jeev and Atwal excelled repeatedly on the international stage and created new Indian landmarks, the trio have also succeeded in inspiring a serious golf culture.

"If the three of us don't make it, someone else will," Randhawa says. "Lots of guys are playing good golf now."

Being the leader brings with it certain responsibilities.

"I know kids are looking up to me," Randhawa says. "I'm their role model, many of them want to be like me. I don't want to set a bad example. You'll never find me at the golf course unshaved."