Children take golf lessons at the camp. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, July 9: The look of concentration on their young faces belies their excitement as they swing the golf clubs in unison. Some manage to hit the ball while others end up nicking the green manicured grass.

These 10 to 14-year-olds are participants of a summer camp at the 18-hole Kaziranga Golf Resort at Sangsua on the western outskirts of this town. The golf clubs — wood and iron varying in size according to the child’s height — are something the kids are handling for the first time in their lives, and are thoroughly enjoying the experience.

The little protégés, however, are in able hands — Rizwan Ali, a former Royal Calcutta Golf Course trainer with 35 years of experience, is training them.

The resort has thrown open its doors to the public free of cost as part of a move by the owner firm, Barooah and Associates, to popularise the game among the masses.

Arup Barbora, executive-in-charge of the resort, said golf was usually seen as a game played by the elite, but the resort owners thought otherwise. “It was the express wish of Hemendra Prasad Barooah, chairman of Barooah and Associates, to bring to the fore talents in the game in the region and the best way to do this was to teach children,” Barbora said.

He said golf summer camps held in other parts of the country usually charged hefty fees but Barooah wanted that this one to be free so that the game became popular among the masses and threw up more talent.

He added that in case any of these students showed exceptional talent, they might be promoted to play in state and national-level tournaments.

In the first batch, 26 students have been enrolled from three schools of Jorhat — Carmel, Springdale and Bagchung Don Bosco. Other schools would be approached to select students for the next summer camp.

“This will be a continuing process and if possible, we might have camps during winter vacations as well,” Barbora said.

Syed Rameez Salman, a Class V student of Bagchung Don Bosco, said he hoped that he could become as good a player as Tiger Woods.

Though all the equipment, the golf course and the training are free of cost, parents will have to bear the children’s conveyance expenses to and from the resort — a 10km journey.

Pallab Baruah, another executive at the resort, said plans were afoot to start a full-fledged academy that would be the third in the country. “But a lot of modalities are yet to be worked out besides infrastructure development.”

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi had inaugurated the sprawling golf course in 2010 with the hope that it would promote tea tourism along with golf.

Anjan Sharma, manager of Gotonga tea estate who is associated with the project, said ace golfer Ranjit Nanda had designed the golf course, which was the only one to be set in a tea garden, had 71 pars and stretches for 6.5km.