Duffers and losers

It may only cut one way but that’s okay if one’s survival is at stake. What are we than losers in parts of our routine existence? Some things come of, some don’t. But this is more about a sport where losing is a part. To nuance it to losers is a laden risk especially how duffers have already been defined — duffers play golf per a popular sentiment. So that is settled. One may suggest all others to take a swing or two at the golf ball; just make sure no one is filming you in the process. That may define the rest.

Were one to amble along a course’s fairways and greens, the trees, bush and shrubs that line these and are interspersed to make a complex game even more difficult, one would marvel at the flora and fauna that finds habitat on a golf course. If you can also hit a ball well and not be the loser in popular parlance you can also mimic life in its most germane while playing the game. Each turn throws up a challenge and every adversity must be overcome. Sometimes you will win, at others you will wilt before it; yet not be the loser for not having tried.

Why this diatribe? You see, I am a qualified duffer and a driven aficionado for the sport of golf and just in case you feel it is too elite to even indulge, remember the names Muhammad Bashir, Muhammad Munir, Matloob Ahmed, Talib Hussain, Sunny Masih and so many more. These are Pakistan’s professional golfers and champions that we can be proud of in so many ways. Even more importantly they are no duffers; they place Pakistan on world’s golfing map. They win competitive golf championships on country’s sparsely located golf courses and with purses they win they edge their family up the social order in a struggling crawl. When not playing championships they caddy and coach and assist in maintaining the courses they play on. Golf clubs employ them to provide for their struggling families.

Seeing them succeed in a sport and in life, even if so slowly, many more of their ilk have taken up the sport when not caddying for patrons and try their hand every so often to see if a talent lies hidden. Slowly but surely Pakistan is making its way up in Asian golf. World series are a way out but not out of reach if we let these budding stars reach for the sky. When the most Honorable, my Lord, the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court ordered the Margalla Greens Golf Club in Islamabad closed and demolished, he just shut the road to the dream for some of them rising stars. They have known of Tiger Woods, John Daly, Jordan Speith, Colin Morikawaa and Rory McIlroy to name a few — some like them starting from roots up and have been emboldened to live a dream in their aspirational journeys. My Lord’s decision to close the Golf Club is to shut the road to their respective futures and of those of their families. If not for the game they may as well be peddling in other wares to survive and subsist.

I must clarify, I am not a member but I have savoured enough times the architectural beauty of the lay-out and the varying degree of difficulty that the course poses on each hole. The 7th is just out of this world. The lordships must be invited to simply stand on the 7th Tee and look up the fairway to the Green and beyond under the feet of the Margallas. It is a sight to behold and you can only thank Heavens for making this world such a wonderful place. On the 8th Tee one can see all of Islamabad in its fullest majesty and only hope to keep it that way. It makes our country look beautiful where moments of joy and serenity are few and far between. And it isn’t only patronised by duffers; most membership comes from those who are not, including the resident diplomats. It gives as much pleasure to the mind as any cricket ground will when one comes up in the remotest corners of the country regardless of the category of land it is built on. In a country where sports has been relegated below perverse causes health and sporting facilities need to be celebrated. And no, they don’t conspire against democracy when they are done with the round of golf. Trust me. There is just so much to moan in the game and fret over. My Lord, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Supreme Court can vouch for that.

I dare not challenge the wisdom of the Court that we must respect and obey to the fullest in letter and spirit but the exalted Chief Justice will surely permit me to slant a word in around an assumed liberty from past association. The Court is entirely right in pointing to the excesses and to violations of laws and rules that govern authority — where violated these must be rectified forthwith — but there exists a clause of ‘past and closed transaction’ which has found escape for many on the wrong side of law in cases of misappropriated authority; hence conferring regularity even when disdainful. It can be balming if it adds to common good.

Ditto the Sailing Club on the edge of Rawal Lake. Poor Navy bears the brunt but if someone exceeded their mandate he must be summarily dealt with especially if it also caused loss to public exchequer. Such initiatives are normally not sourced from public money and therefore permit greater flexibility in their use and purpose — we can talk one day all about wherefrom it generates and what use it is put to — but one test of the case is if it enabled personal gain in which case it must be treated as graft. But if it contributes to common good minor excesses should be overlooked. If indeed the Sailing Club was entirely unauthorised — I can’t imagine it’s possible; someone, somewhere authorised it — it must be probed into but rather than demolish structures re-purposing and changing ownership could be a far better option. We hardly make anything of consequence anyway in this country — look at the underpasses and flyovers that cost billions only to realise that our engineering attempts only choke traffic elsewhere with newer complications. Now that we have them, let’s use them to better purpose. Even if non-public, money is money and should not be squandered. Demolishing is squandering.

So here’s an option: Let the CDA take over the Margalla course and its perfunctory Clubhouse — that way we can save an asset — and repurpose the Sailing Club to say instituting a government run incubation centre for technology while the front part continues to provide some sailing leisure to the people at large. CDA can run it with the Navy. We will train some rescuers, some will learn to sail, while the extended parts of the club can add better value in return by incubating technology start-ups. Even if duffers were the culprit the law must find space for what is rational.