Arjun Atwal at the RCGC on Saturday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: It?s been just two years he?s been away, but Arjun Atwal has changed a lot in these months. Sitting relaxed at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club Saturday afternoon, sipping from a can of Diet Coke, Atwal looked leaner (though definitely not meaner) and fitter and so sure of what he is doing and what he wants from life.

Having taken up the clubs after an almost two-week break, he did pretty well for himself in a four-ball meet, part of the Royal?s 175th year celebrations, held in association with The Telegraph and presented by Airtel.

Atwal and Indrajit Bhalotia easily beat Shiv Kapur and Rahil Gangjee, but that?s half the story. The thrust of the golfing world and of Calcutta is that Atwal was enjoying himself. A strictly disciplined player, who takes his dinner by 6.30-7pm while on the USPGA Tour, was letting his hair down, planning to return ?for a while? after the qualifying school last round from December 1 to 6.

Then there is this latter addition. ?The Royal is looking good,? he says. ?The greens are better, way better maintained and all that.? Let?s not call it d?j? vu, it?s more like homecoming blues. Yet, he tested his swing and hit eight birdies in his round and found not a speck of rust in his putts, so raring to go.

Talking to The Telegraph on the sprawling lawns of the Royal, he possibly let go a secret desire. Yes, a private chartered jet, maybe as early as end of next season. Lots of things have to be sorted out before that. He has to get his full Tour card back (now he has a conditional card that allows him only about 18 of the 42-odd Tour events). ?I need to play around 30 (which he did last season) to be able to compete at the top.?

A desire for a private jet or not, money isn?t the primary desire for Atwal. ?First and foremost, I need to win a tournament,? he said. ?That?s most important. I have been around that circuit, around most courses, and I remember every nook and cranny, every water hazard, every bunker and every rolling fairway. I will be able to put this information to better use this time, I am sure (he refuses to admit that he has a virtually photographic memory).

?Also, I have studied many of the players I have played alongside. I have beaten some and then they have gone ahead to win events. I need to win? the money will come.?

So what has been his motivation and what will be, when he returns to the American fairways? ?My baby (Krishen), surely.? That?s pretty extraordinary for a hardcore pro on the US PGA. ?No, look, last season, in one meet when I was really down and losing my temper over fouled shots, my wife Ritika, walking with me, came forward and said: ?Why are you doing this? Look at your kid, look at his eyes, and believe that you are doing all this for him.? I did, and I was relaxed, immediately.?

That?s a purpose that Atwal understood and identified with immediately. Late on the Tour, he went through 18 holes of an event without even one of the bogeys that generally keep following him.

Somewhere down the line, the Tour changes people. ?It is different. There are always a couple of players who stay aloof, but even the top stars on the Tour, Vijai Singh and Tiger Woods, are all so friendly. They say hi every time you meet, they come over and talk to you and offer help. It?s really a great family.?

It?s got to be. Atwal lives in Orlando, but hardly knows how many Indian families live around. ?There is this doctor I know, and then there is Simi Mehra?? He doesn?t need the local Americans either. The Tour is rather complete, rather much an extension of family.

How diligent is he at practise? ?As much as I have to be. I generally concentrate on all my weaknesses and practise my swing and putting and then my yoga,? he says. ?And now I am a passive, aggressive player.? That means a passivity that you show on the greens, up the fairways, replacing the usual aggression of the past, and then mixing a dose of aggression as you see the flag. ?My putters take care of a lot near the hole these days.?

That?s a lot of new thought. Where did he get it from? ?Actually it?s a thing I picked up from a talk with Vijai. He is one such player and explained this in detail. I follow it.? The philosophy, yes, but not essentially the practise schedule. Vijai is known to practise even into the dusk and every day and redo a putt a hundred times if necessary to get it right. ?For him it?s golf and only golf,? as Atwal sees it.

Arjun Atwal has discovered a newer angle to life. Yet he finds time for his friends back home, calling up Indrajit Bhalotia for a chat late into the night, or just wondering how good the new Indian breed is going to be, especially with academies like the one Bhalotia oversees coming up. ?Believe me, these kids ? Shiv Kapur and Rahil Gangjee and Ashok Kumar (I haven?t seen him, but I have heard) ? have better swings than I. And they are putting great.?

No Indian company around the Tour so far. Soon that could change, if one really believes what Atwal believes.