SSP willing to endure pain

One thing first sight won’t associate with SSP Chowrasia is mean machines. But a sly smile peaks through...

One thing first sight won’t associate with SSP Chowrasia is mean machines. But a sly smile peaks through as the pixie-sized player starts to talk about “those days” on his Pulsar. Unfortunately, it’s a legacy — a wrist injury — of just those days that has kept Chowrasia a little less aggressive these past couple of months, affecting his drives on the golf course and the preferred mode of driving on the roads.

Having finally decided to play at the Indian Open this week — not to forget a stint with a wrist specialist tucked in the middle — Chowrasia, though, is choosing to give the pain his good-humour treatment of old.

“Well, if I had to withdraw, there was nothing I could do about it,” he laughs. “But I’ve decided to play here since you don’t need the driver much on this course,” he says.

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The first thing he did on arrival in Delhi was finding himself a doctor, and there is another trip scheduled for Friday. “We’ll have a look to find out if I might need surgery. That will mean six months gone, but well, if you can’t play, you can’t play,” he repeats, lest you missed out on his philosophy.

It was a broken right scaphoid bone from an unlucky fumble while on his motorbike four years ago that suddenly struck back as Chowrasia was practising at home this August, setting him back in his long, hard first playing tour through Europe.

“It wasn’t even a fall. But the diagnosis seemed to have gone wrong. For four years, though, I played without any trouble, so we did not think something was awry,” he says, renewing acquaintances at and with the Delhi Golf Club, the site of his dream-like win at the Indian Masters in February. “Now it has suddenly come back, and it seems the fracture never healed properly.”

Driving struggle

Hitting “220 yards with the driver” Chowrasia struggled in tournament after tournament, despite digit-perfect putting statistics. “Yeah, I’ve been putting great, but then you need all aspects of the game to be in order to get results,” Chowrasia laughs.

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But those statistics and his famed short game did attract attention as he trudged around rain-soaked, bitterly cold links courses around Europe.

It is the story from his first brush with the World Golf Championship in the Sunshine State Florida that brings out the guffaws again, though. “At first, I felt funny, out of place, the other players were wondering who this ‘little guy’ was,” he laughs.

He did get to see idol Tiger Woods, but no cheery hellos could be exchanged. “There is a big crowd around Tiger all the time, lots of fans, lots of media, it is a little difficult to get near him,” he says.

One guy he does get to see closely is European Tour regular Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, who Chowrasia says is his other ‘idol.’ “It’s so good to see the way he keeps his attitude of nonchalance and ease at all times,” Chowrasia gushes. “With the cigar dangling from the mouth, he looks absolutely at home, relaxed on the golf course. That is something I really appreciate.”

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Not too far from an analysis of his own self, though.