Exclusive Interview with child prodigy Shubham Narain

Shubham Narain is India’s second ranked golfer in the U-18 in category and EssentiallySports got a chance to catch up with for an interview with Shubham Narain.

In this interview, Shubham Narain talks of his journey so far, his preparations and the tournaments he wants to win now. He also talks of Golf can be more promoted in India.

Excerpts from the interview…

The journey’s been pretty good so far, as in , during my first year in tour, it was pretty good, I had a lot of crazy experiences, last two years have been pretty good, ever since I have come into the Indian team, been playing some good golf over the past two years, so yeah, it’s been pretty good.

That should be about 5-6, I think 6 years ago, there used to be a neighbour of mine, Shubhankar Sharma, who’s a very good pro right now, he introduced me to golf, he used to drag me to the course everyday and be like “Oh, this is a lovely sport to play” and after that, ever since, Dad and Mom have been very supportive, and that’s how I have been able to play this sport.

Initially I started with Jesse Grewal sir, He had a very big influence in setting up my early ages swing

And obviously our national team coach Jasjit sir, He has played a very helping hand.

Obstacles as in, yeah, the sport is really tough, it’s very frustrating because it takes like hours and hours and days and days to get very good at it. Its been really tough and the environment’s been pretty good to m: Mom, Dad, my younger brother and my sister, they have all been very supportive, they helped me through my ups and downs, and even the federation, so yeah they have all been pretty good to me

Definitely, has to be the legend Tiger Woods, but as of now, I’d say Jordan Spieth.

Uhh, immediate future is because, I am turning 18 next to next month, so after that I’ll no longer be junior so probably make the amateur squad, play a few prestigious amateur events, and turn professional maybe next to next year.

Maybe last year, I think June-July, that was in KGA Bangalore, I played some amazing Golf, I lost in the play-off, but yeah, I shot two under for the week, I played the best round of my life there, that was six under and probably the professional event about a month ago, I had been playing really well, made the cut for my first professional event

Indian Golf Union has played the biggest role, as in, it has supported so much, thanks to the tournaments and the number of tournaments they have held, they have let us play, taken out for international experiences. Last year or so I have represented the country four times, so given that international exposure, it’s played a hell of a role and I’ll be eternally grateful to them for all this, wherever I am.

First of all, I’ll say, more sponsors sponsoring the national circuit, the Indian Golf Union, so that, you know, if there are more sponsors, like right now there’s only YesBank sponsoring the IGU, so if there are more sponsors, then there’ll be more money, we’ll have more national events, more international events and there’ll be more experience and more exposure for the junior golfers so that at the bigger stage, we are able to handle pressure because in sports there’s a lot of pressure, then probably we’ll go out with colleges, you know.

Colleges and schools should probably start having inter-schools because golf is not included in the sports quota so it’s very difficult for people like me and all the budding golfers to play golf and then get 95 percent to get into a college. There definitely should be, I am not saying plenty of seats but a few should be there so that people do not have difficulties getting into college. Golf should definitely be there in the sports quota.

There are a lot of distractions, keep your head down, work towards your dream, work hard and choose the correct company. Don’t get into all the sad things that right now, the youngsters do.

Catch the video interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf76GlpPnpc