First Person

A score of eleven-under in last week’s Thailand Open, plus the leading score of eleven-under over 216 holes in the ongoing Hero Cycles Chandigarh Open, just about vindicates the changes Amritinder claims to have made to his game attitude, he stresses.

Amritinder owes a lot to his parents, especially his father Simran Singh, who he feels has been his coach and mentor as well. “The first thing I remember about my childhood is golf. My father was doing so well and my late brother Kanwarinder Singh was also winning tournaments. Nobody pushed me into the game but I had nothing else on my mind,” he recollects.

“He could hold a club when he was five. He would accompany his father and brother to the course and watch them play,” his mother adds. “His father can point out his mistakes like this. I knows his strengths and weaknesses. Whenever he is home, we all sit down and analyse his game. We have tried to make him more strong, mentally,” she says.

He won the all India Open title in Mumbai in ’92 and decided to turn a pro in ’93. Those were the times, he feels, when Chandigarh was fast emerging as a major golf-centre of the country. His friend and roommate on tours abroad, Jeev Milkha Singh, was shaping up well and the others could actually feel his success.

“Undoubtedly, Jeev has had an influence on me. He is always there for me when the chips are down. So is Daniel Chopra. I beat him for the India Open title (’92) and since then we have struck a rapport,” he says.

He has a word of praise for other Chandigarh golfers like Amandeep Johl and Harmeet Kahlon (amateur) and is confident that Chandigarh would produce many more. “I looked upon Jeev and maybe some will look upon me and others. That’s how the baton passes,” he says.

Amritinder is 26, employed with Bharat Petroleum, and feels his best is yet to come. “I had been yearning for a title. Now if I get that tomorrow, I would try to build on to that. I feel more confident now”.

“This has been a pretty satisfactory year. I have won something around US dollars 17,000 so far as prize money on the Asian PGA tour apart from the seventy-odd thousand rupees on the Indian Tour, which I am afraid I haven’t played much this year”.

Amritinder’s golf-caravan moves next to Hong Kong, where he will play the Omega Tour event in December. “That’s the tourney golfers like me should try to do well in. You get to play alongside world class golfers and if you do well there, your confidence is boosted,” he informs.

He likes to be referred to as a happy-go-lucky-person and says that he would take the things as they come, still he has set himself a few goals. “Next year, my aim would be to qualify for the European PGA. I would be very happy if I do that,” Amritinder says.

Still single, Amritinder doesn’t agree with his mother’s wish that he settles down quickly. “No, no. No marriage now, not at least for another two-three years. In fact, I am yet to meet the right person,” he smiles. Though he doesn’t have much time to spare for his family, he doesn’t nurse any grudge. “Sport has always interested me. If I wasn’t a golfer, I would have been into motor-racing, or maybe a hockey player.” That’s Amritinder Singh for you.