Fairway to Success

THE SUN IS OUT over Delhi's city limits and we're racing along National Highway Number 1. The capital's urban sprawl stretches on and melds into the hectically growing glass and steel along the Haryana border. We cross giant malls, food plazas with McDonald's and Haldiram's, and come out into the vast greens finally. Just short of Panipat, we take a left exit for Israna.

We're here in search of 11-year-old Shubham Jaglan's story. While most children his age are obsessed with cricket or Chhota Bheem, Shubham, the son of a milkman from Israna village, is currently the top player in the world in his category, having almost bagged a grand slam this year. He puts his entire being into that one thing that has changed the course of his life--golf.

Shubham's journey started from the fields of Israna when he was just six. This sleepy tehsil is vaguely known for the wrestlers it has sent to the many national and international tournaments, but is hard to spot on a map. It is roughly 110 km from Delhi's Golf Club where we earlier met Shubham with 'Noni Ma'am', his 55-year-old coach and one of India's top golfers, better known as Nonita Lall Qureshi. But the road Shubham has travelled is much longer.

Jagpal, 40, Shubham's father--now his manager--meets us at the village chowk. A stocky and cheerful man, he speaks Hindi with a thick Haryanvi accent. "None of us had heard about golf here. Cricket, wrestling yes, not golf," he smiles. We drive through the lush paddy fields and narrow village lanes to reach the Jaglan home. It has the warmth of a village house with a courtyard and a tree; the cowshed that became a makeshift bunker for Shubham to practise golf in, is now gone. It's been about  five years since he has left his village to live in Ashram Chowk, a grimy industrial neighbourhood in south Delhi.

Shubham is looking sombre in a kurta pyjama, hair neatly parted--he is here from Delhi to show us around--while his cousins watch from a distance. Shalu, his uncle's daughter, who is busy looking after everyone, will tell us over lunch, "Yeh toh full hero hai." Later, they will climb trees together and play like tweens do.

THE BOY FIRST SAW a golf club when his grandfather took him to an academy in their village started by an NRI, Kapoor Singh, a former athlete who now runs an education outfit in the US. The academy started with a few village boys but most of them ran away--to play cricket or swing from the trees in the village--and the academy closed down.

But before it did, two weeks into his lessons, Shubham faced his first challenge as a golfer. He was trying to pick up a ball during practice when a small boy next to him took a wild swing and hit Shubham on the head with a golf club. "It hit me right here," Shubham says, showing the left side of his head. "There was blood all over my face, but I did not cry." He was rushed to the nearest hospital, given sedatives, stitched up and sent home at night.

Everyone at the academy was startled when Shubham showed up the very next day. Playing golf was "so much fun" that he had persuaded his family to take him. "I didn't want to miss class, I don't know why, but I just didn't," grins Shubham.

Before leaving, Kapoor Singh did two important things: he left some junior golf sets with Shubham's father and suggested that he continue with golf, as the boy seemed to have a natural flair. "If it didn't work out he had the option of wrestling," says Ishwar Singh, his grandfather, looking back.

To learn the game, Shubham needed to practise bunker (sand) shots. Jagpal, then a milkman, filled up a big bowl for feeding the buffaloes with sand and placed it in the courtyard for Shubham. Says Qureshi, Shubham's coach, "The fact that he developed any skill in these conditions is remarkable." 

At home, Shubham watched YouTube videos of Tiger Woods on a desktop computer that Jagpal had got him. "He is my hero, and I tried to copy him; I thought if it worked out, great, if it didn't then we'd move on to the next thing and try to improve," says Shubham. On the weekends Jagpal used to drive Shubham, in his Maruti 800, to Karnal--about 45 km away--to let him play golf all day.

Shubham got so good at it that he entered a few tournaments in Delhi. The first was an Indian Golf Union (IGU) one in Panchkula. Shubham was six and a half years old then, and in the absence of the E category (where he could compete with kids in his age group), he was pushed into D with older kids. But soon after, at a tournament in Noida, he played in E--and tasted tournament victory for the first time.

Another time, however, he wasn't allowed in an IGU tournament in Delhi--they thought he was too young. "Someone gave us Golf Foundation founder and CEO Mr Amit Luthra's number and we met him for help," says Jagpal. And that was the start of Shubham's journey to the big golf circuits.

IT WAS AROUND this time that Nonita Lall Qureshi first came across Shubham's name. The boy was winning by a big margin every time he played, she noticed. "He suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and nobody seemed to know anything about him," says Qureshi.

Involved with The Golf Foundation, a non-profit organization that helped underprivileged kids play, she was responsible for scouting talent and training. "I started asking around and finally someone passed on Jagpal's number," says the coach.

Qureshi called Jagpal from a training camp in Chandigarh and they decided to meet at Israna on her way back. Shubham recalls his first meeting with his Noni Ma'am vividly. "She had brought me Chocopies and Fox toffees," says the boy smiling a big smile.

Qureshi was astonished by what she saw, "To think that anybody in that environment could be playing golf was unbelievable." Shubham played a few strokes for her, but it was only after a few days at the Delhi Golf Club that Qureshi saw the real action. "I was blown away by his game," she says, "I work a lot with kids: the extent of his knowledge and insights was amazing."

The foundation had so far sponsored children from the cities but training Shubham would mean relocating the family to Delhi, putting his dad out of a job, and making sure Shubham was in school, too. "I asked them to think about it, while I ran all of this by the foundation," says Qureshi. "We had to take the chance since Shubham was so talented," Jagpal says. And Qureshi started the sponsorship process.

Shubham packed his bags and moved to Delhi with his father. They hoped he would get into a school soon. "My husband cooked, cleaned and played caddie, while my boy played," says Anjana, 36, Shubham's mother, a frail, sharp woman. "It was hard sending him away; he could have stayed home and played with his toys like the other boys in our village, but it was all for his game." 

The foundation, by then, had stepped in to speak to the Delhi Golf Club to allow him to play and practise; they not only agreed but offered monetary aid as well. Ping, the equipment manufacturing company, was on board and DLF, the real-estate firm that runs a golf club in Gurgaon, also came forward to sponsor his foreign trips.

For the past four years Shubham has been making a mark in the international circuit. He has played every major (junior) tournament in the US-Junior World Golf Championships (JWGC), US Kids Golf World Championships, and World Masters of Junior Golf. He's also played in Europe and Asia.

Shubham had a small start in 2012, ending up 22nd at JWGC. In 2013, he startled everyone by coming second in the same tournament. Last year, he played three tournaments in the US again, coming fifth at JWGC, and second in US Kids. And then this year, he won JWGC and World Stars of Junior Golf and almost made the grand slam.

"He's grown a lot, competing with some young top golfers, but he has a long way to go," says Qureshi.

"Ma'am, my name will be there with my idols," Shubham looks at Noni Ma'am, and smiles shyly.

"Yes," nods Qureshi, "his name will be up there with past winners, along with Tiger Woods, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy, golf heroes who have trodden the same path that Shubham is on now."

Shubham has attended workshops by golf legends Colin Montgomerie and Gary Player in India. "They have been blown away by the sort of questions he has asked and his approach to the game," adds Qureshi. Luthra particularly mentions the glowing feedback from Player.

WHEN WE MEET Shubham for the first time at the Delhi Golf Club with his Noni Ma'am, he seems shy and quite mature. He is small for his age, very observant and speaks only when spoken to. His English is perfect; he speaks with sharpness and precision.

It is clear Noni Ma'am is more a life coach than a golf instructor for him and there is a strong bond between them. The mutual respect and admiration is wonderful to watch. Says Qureshi, "I didn't really have to teach him golf technique; he's pretty insightful, and just needs to be nudged in the right direction."

Qureshi goes on to explain how golf is a mind game. "You are out there for five and a half hours minimum, it's hard to stay focused for that long," she adds. "I've never seen a boy his age with this kind of concentration; his attention to detail and grasp of the game is extraordinary."

Yet, for Shubham, mastering his mind remains one of his key goals. "I would get angry often, while playing," he says, "but I've realized it was just spoiling my game." The boy has worked very hard to keep his mind still. "If you lose focus you'll end up quitting. Your mind has to be like a rock; it feels like fun when it's focused," he says.

Qureshi shares her insights during our conversation, as Shubham listens intently: "You need to develop strength of character, be alive to your surroundings and control your emotions. Every time you make a mistake in golf you can be sure your mind wasn't in it. Finding quietness within you when you play is key--breathing exercises, meditation and yoga help."

Also, playing golf requires a high level of integrity, Qureshi explains. It is the only sport in the world, according to her, where there's no umpire or referee pointing out a breach. The player is expected to penalize himself. "Often things can go wrong that nobody except you and the almighty can see. To be able to tell your opponent that it's a penalty requires strength of character. Especially when you know that the difference between winning and losing is sometimes that one shot," she says.

Shubham gazes on admiringly, as Noni Ma'am speaks, sitting under a striped parasol on the grounds of the Delhi Golf Club. Bearers in starched uniforms serve us nimbu soda; dressed in his golfing outfit, this modern-day Eklavya looks like a perfect insider.

WHEN HE FIRST moved to Delhi, Shubham neither spoke nor understood anything other than Haryanvi. While the boy focused on his game, his parents tried to find their feet in the big city. Almost a year passed, yet Shubham remained out of school.

It was around this time that the boy wonder was felicitated by NDTV. At the function, Dr Usha Ram, the principal of Laxman Public School, offered him a place in her school, free of cost. Shubham started in the fourth standard almost immediately. "It was not tough at all, I adapted fast," he says. The school arranged for a special English teacher, and happily for Shubham, he turned out to have a natural flair for languages--he can break into an American accent on call today. He does quite well in school with the support of his teachers and friends, particularly considering that he is often away for tournaments.

It was all coming together, finally. Another Delhi-based charitable foundation (that does not wish to be named) also stepped in to help. Of course, there was his fitness instructor Sagar Diwan, nutrition advisor Ishi Khosla, and Luthra from the foundation who rallied around Shubham.

When the world champion returned home from his conquests this year, Luthra organized a celebration in his Delhi farmhouse. The village folk, who did not understand what this fuss was all about, were invited. "Luthra saab sent two buses to Israna to bring about 80 people here. They finally got a sense of what's going on with Shubham," says Jagpal.

Back in the village, they decided to felicitate the champ. There was a 15-km cavalcade with a band; Shubham was dressed up in a turban and put in a chariot. "It was fun, there were so many people," grins Shubham, not shy any more. Om Singh, 60, a former Asian Games wrestler, is impressed, "The boy has made us all proud."

The Israna Shubham is quite different from the confident little golfing champ. "When I go abroad people tell me, 'Come on, you can't be from a village'. " This year he lived in California with an Indian family, where there was a boy Shubham's age. This whole other life fascinates him: "I just loved being there."

"We want him to keep coming back to Israna, it will always remind him where he came from," says his mother who has now moved to Delhi. "He should not get ahead of himself, it will harm his game," says Luthra.

Adds Qureshi, as Shubham listens: "The West comes to India to find their soul and we're rushing there for material comforts. But these are transient and what will remain in your life, bring richness to it, are your relationships. Relationships with your parents, teachers, friends, and coaches. No matter where you go in the world, who you meet or what you do, tell yourself, 'this is who I am, this is where my journey started'. "

Gratitude comes easily to the boy: he uses the word 'we', instead of I, just like another golfing idol Jordan Speith. "It will always be we because we are a team--even if I'm going alone, someone is helping me caddie, or teaching me how to play, or serving me food, getting me a hotel reservation or paying my expenses, they are also with me," he explains.

Does he see a hero when he looks into the mirror? "No, if you are getting top class facilities and not performing, it means something is wrong. If I'm performing, that's what I'm supposed to do. The only downside, to his mind, is this: "I did not go to school for a year and we had to manage. Because, without my studies I'd be stuck. If an accident happens, God forbid, I'm just a sixth class pass!"

Shubham dreams about going to college at Stanford one day, just like Tiger Woods did. As for golf, it's slow and steady. "We just try our best, and no one can ask for more than my best. My focus at every tournament, every session, every day, is to give my best, that's it."

And, that's what makes him Shubham Jaglan.