Caddie turns professional golfer

Sajjad aims to make it big as he prepares for his first major event starting today.

KARACHI:

Twenty-year-old Muhammad Sajjad is at a crossroads. After working for six years as a caddie, he has just qualified to become a professional golfer. In a few days, he’ll be competing with the best players from across the country. But he does not want his story to end as that of just another poor kid who made it to the pros.

“I’ll give my best. I am really hoping to make a mark,” he said, talking about the Chief of Air Staff Open Golf Championship, which starts today at the PAF Korangi Creek Base. “I have worked day and night to learn this game. Hopefully, things will only get better for me from here.”

More than 90 professional golfers are taking part in the tournament. Most of them had started off as caddies like Sajjad — earning their way up by carrying golf bags for wealthy customers, picking up the balls to learning the tricks of one of the most expensive of games.

Pakistan is no exception when it comes to caddies becoming professional golfers. But unlike other countries, conditions for these helpers here are harsh — there are no tips, carrying a bag for four hours in sweltering heat earns them just Rs250 and at times, they wait days before getting a chance to step onto the golf course.

The son of a gardener, Sajjad lives in a two-room house with his parents and three brothers.

“My brother became an inspiration. He was also a caddie and now plays with the professionals. He gave up education after matriculation. I was busy doing all this. How could I have studied?”

It’s a mix of passion for the game and money that drives these individuals. The life of a caddie is not easy. Sajjad would wake up before daybreak, take a bus ride to the Karsaz Golf Club from his home in Korangi and be ready for customers by 6am.

“Some days I would get picked up as a caddie and at others there was no work,” he says. “But I started learning the game by observing. It was not easy practising it.”

With borrowed clubs and used balls, he would practice day and night — if the head caddie wasn’t watching.

“Non-members are not allowed to play at the clubs. So, people like me have to find opportunities between game pauses. A lot depends on the generosity of the people we work for.”

Out on the course, a caddie is more than just someone who carries a bag and drinks for the golfer. A good caddie knows the yardage, right place to put the tee, club selection and ability to read the wind direction.

On a recent afternoon, Sajjad plucked a few strands of grass from the ground and held them in his hand to study the flow of the breeze. He hits one ball after another using different clubs, sending them off in different directions.

“This one is the wood club. I use this for covering long distances,” he said, showing off second-hand club he bought for Rs12,000. A new one costs over Rs35,000.

For many caddie-turned-professionals the career can end even before it starts. A set of three golf balls comes for Rs1,500. In a tournament, when one of these professionals runs out of balls, they are at the mercy of their opponents to lend them a few for the game to continue.

Many promising golfers couldn’t come in the limelight just because they had no one to financially back their tours. Sajjad earns Rs8,000 a month doing odd jobs at the club helping amateur golfers learn the ropes.

Businessmen, CEOs and retired government officials would pamper their caddies on the course but would hardly try to know them as persons. The fact that 95 per cent of golfers come from lowest income group, means they’ll find few sponsors.

Sajjad knows the reality. And so when he begins his professional career, he will aim for the best.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2013.