Gagandeep Jassowal

gagandeep@htlive.com

RAHON (SBS NAGAR) : Children of slum areas in Rahon, a small and historic town in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, could never have imagined that they will get a chance to learn and play one of the most expensive sports — golf. But Colonel Harcharan Singh Bajwa (retd) has made it happen and taken initiative to train these kids in this sport, otherwise considered a game for the elite.

Col Bajwa has chosen 12 slum children who are being trained for three hours daily in a rooftop net over a computer centre owned by him. Besides, they have evening practice sessions at the local Dussehra ground.

Col Bajwa has hired two persons — Harinder Singh as manager and Om Parkash Patel as trainer — for grooming these children of labourers as golf players. Having started their practice around two months ago, some of these children performed well in the 2nd Junior Open Golf Tournament at Delhi Public School in Khanna on December 22.

The children, who study in a government school, rush for the training after coming from school without even changing their uniform.

Sham Kumar, a Class-6 student, and Krishan Kumar, Class-5 student, said they earlier used to play cricket in the ground before “Bajwa uncle” invited them to play golf. Krishan, who won a medal at the Khanna tournament, said, “Now, we love playing golf.”

“Golf is quite an expensive game and only the rich can afford to play this game. That’s why I thought of providing an opportunity to slum children to train in this game,” said Col Bajwa while talking to HT over phone from Canada where he is currently gone to visit his family. He lives alone in Rahon while his family is settled in Vancouver.

Col Bajwa has spent over Rs 2 lakh for creating infrastructure for training the children and plans to spend up to Rs 10 lakh in the current year to develop a training facility at the Dussehra ground.

Trainer Patel said, “These kids are picking up things quickly while we train them about swing, hitting, chipping and putting golf.”

Manager Harinder said, “After cage practice, we take them to the Dussehra ground where we have installed flags for them to practice alignment.” Meanwhile, Col Bajwa has been getting support of his former army colleagues to promote golf among slum children. Members of a WhatsApp group of Chandigarh-based golfers, including retired army personnel, ‘TRICITY B2B’ have donated their old and spare golf kits, balls and other equipment for the initiative. Col Bajwa, who plans to develop his agricultural land in Rahon into a golf course, said, “I want to groom these children as professional golf players.”