Fifty-seven-year-old Mohammad Islam's fascination for golf started very early while he watched army men try their hand at the "gentleman's game". His love for the game compelled him to become a caddie to former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna in 1981 so that he could stay close to the green turf.
Perseverance and patience has paid off for the veteran who has been gifted a gymkhana membership from the Patna Golf Club. The club authorities announced their decision at the club's recently concluded centenary celebrations.
After years, Islam is on cloud nine because his dream of turning into a professional golfer has come true with the membership. This will allow him to play golf at the club professionally, something that he has been looking forward to for a long time.
The club offers different kinds of memberships to different categories of golfers. It provides gymkhana membership to professional golfers, who find themselves unable to take up the game because of financial barriers. While a golfer willing to be a Patna Golf Club lifetime member pays Rs 1.5 lakh, Islam will need to pay Rs 20,000 for the membership. He will be allowed to play on the course for the rest of his life.
Islam initially started off as a caddie at the Allahabad Army Golf Course. A caddie carries the golfer's equipment, teaches amateurs the intricacies of the game and offers tips on the condition of the turf. Patna Golf Club officials said it was a great achievement for someone who had only been a caddie.
"Patna Golf Club has always helped keen golfers and even caddies with a potential to take up the game seriously," said club secretary Manik Vedsen. "The gymkhana membership has not been offered to anyone for quite some time now. We are happy to revive this membership for someone like Islam who has devoted his life to the sport."
Islam, who is now working as the office supervisor at Danapur Railway Station, fondly recalls how he used to secretly play at the Allahabad Army Golf Course at the age of 12 when army officials took a nap in the afternoon.
"My father, late Abdul Gaffar Khan, was a Grade IV employee in the army and had caught me playing the game secretly on the Allahabad course with my cousins," he reminisced. "He would beat me up. Depite all this, I continued swinging secretly. We did not have access to the golf ball and the club. So we used a wild fruit and a stick to play. I loved playing in the moonlit nights too."
He extended his gratifications to Vijay Bahuguna , who was a lawyer at Allahabad High Court then. Bahuguna had taken Islam on as his caddie in 1981, enabling him to enter the golf course.
"I took up Bahuguna ji's offer because I wanted to get proper entry into the golf course," he recalled. "After a few days of working as a caddie, I was allowed to play on the army golf course. Bahugunaji had given me his own golf set to play with for the first few years. He bought a new golf set worth around Rs 5,000 for me in 1983, which he handed over to me before I joined the Patna Golf Club as a coach. Today, I own a golf set worth Rs 1.5 lakh, including a putter worth Rs 50,000 that I won in the European tour held at the Jaypee Green golf course in Noida in 2014."
Islam has many golf championships under his belt.
"My father and mother died when I was playing tournaments but such is my love for the game that I finished my match and then came back for their final rites," he said. "Discipline is necessary for everything in life, even sports."
