The school of hard knocks

Simply Golf

The three most dreaded words in the life of a professional golfer are, "back to school".

That means going through the rigours of a Qualifying School to get back the playing rights for a pro golf tour. It does not matter which Q-School, as the players call it, it is "" Indian, Asian, Japanese, European or the biggest of them all, the US PGA Tour.

Each year more than 300 Indian pros, most of them former caddies, turn up dreaming of becoming the next Ali Sher or Mukesh Kumar. And only the top 40 get the full card to join the top 60 from the previous year.

This week, the biggest of all Q-Schools is holding its final "examination" of the candidates. There are 171 players, and only the top 30 will at the end of a gruelling six rounds get the coveted card.

Sweaty palms and dry throats and three putts from five feet will be commonplace. Hazards will seem bigger, water bodies seem giant ponds and the course the whole universe.

Yet, for those who make it to the final stages, there is still life after School, what former players call as the "safety net". Miss out on the European Tour, and there is always the European Challenge Tour and in US, there is the Nationwide.

The real heartbreak stories are to be found in the earlier stages. Miss out on first and second stages and you are struggling on really local tours, where the prize money barely covers the travel costs.

In India, for many caddies it means back to carrying bags and hoping for teaching sessions, which fetch anything between Rs 50 and Rs 100 for 30 minutes.

This week at the US Schools, there will be two Indians, Arjun Atwal and Daniel Chopra trying to break into the big league. Both are great stories. Atwal hails from a very affluent family and has had fair success from the start.

He studied in US, turned pro and has done well in Asian PGA. He made it to the European PGA, won twice, and now is giving US a shot. If he wins the APGA Merit title, as is likely, he will get a full card to Japan.

For Chopra, born to an Indian father and a Swedish mother, and brought up by his grandparents in India, golf came naturally. He learnt it and learnt it well at the Delhi Golf Course.

He likes being called an Indian though he has a Swedish passport and was the first to get into the European Tour "" Jeev Milkha Singh and Atwal followed him.

He also dabbled a bit in Asia, but then form deserted him. He lost his card in Europe, did not have a card in Asia and virtually no money to keep paying for air passages and hotels, caddies and practice sessions.

Till his friend, Jeev stepped in with a small loan and help to get a spot in an event in Taiwan. Chopra played well, got another invite the following week and won the event itself.

The loan was repaid, a card was assured "" winners get a two-year exemption on the tour they have won in "" and life was back on the trail.

He made it to the Nationwide last year and last month after a year-long grind, he was within a shot, virtually, of the US PGA Tour itself. With only top 20 from Nationwide earning an automatic berth to the big Tour, he finished 21st. A putt or two dropping in his last event could have done the trick.

And this week, he led after the first round of the six-round qualifier and maybe by Monday he will have secured his PGA dream. But most important of all, he will know what the School of Hard Knocks is all about.