But due to some progressive pondering, residents of among the poorest areas of Mumbai have been utilizing the bumps and lumps of the road as their course.
Here there is no soundscape of well mannered clapping from watching followers or birds chirping — only a cacophony of residents poking their heads out of home windows, buses touring beneath and the hooting of tuk-tuk horns.
Slum golf, a model of the game utilizing do-it-yourself golf equipment and balls, deploys the cracks and crevices within the Chembur locality of the hustling, bustling metropolis for its course and small divots within the floor as its holes.
The makeshift game was created in 2000 in Mumbai — India’s monetary capital with a inhabitants of greater than 12 million — by Suresh Mehboobani and others exterior their hours working as caddies on the Bombay Presidency Golf Club (BPGC) at a time once they weren’t permitted to play totally free.
Golf is not the preferred sport in India, however Mehboobani is hoping his makeshift model of the game will show an introduction — particularly to his 6-year-old daughter Ashmi — to the extra conventional game.
“People are enjoying on the streets as effectively in Europe. Especially individuals [who] play on the streets, I would like individuals to see our movies on YouTube. The world is enjoying [golf] on the streets, in order that’s the place I feel we did one thing good; we introduced the game to the streets and other people prefer it in the present day.”
Making the most
Although the dark red ball and the wooden bat hook many Indian youngsters, Mehboobani’s interest has always been on a small, white ball and long, thin golf clubs.
On his route to and from school, he walked past a golf club and after watching through the fence while members drove, chipped and putted, Mehboobani was hooked.
He picked up a job at the BPGC caddying to sate his passion for the sport. But when he wasn’t permitted to play at the members only club for free, he came up with another method to play, reimagining the Chembur slums as a golf course, with tee positions varying from on the floor to the tops of buildings.
After some trial and error, Mehboobani and others found they could use waste material from buildings to fashion clubs — hammering the end to form the face of the club — and use cylinder pipes as grips.
As for the ball, he insists gamers use plastic slightly than correct golf balls so to not “draw blood” if they hit a fellow player, passerby or resident of the slum.
In its heyday, over 50 people — typically caddies at the club — used to congregate on their days off on Monday to play slum golf.
The local club has also opened its arms to slum golf, with some members choosing to try their hand, as well as an Indian professional golfer and an international player traveling to Mumbai to sample this unique version of the game.
“They had an excellent response; they mentioned they’re having extra enjoyable exterior than enjoying inside (on the course). They get to hit totally different photographs, from above the bus, above vehicles. Inside you’ll be able to’t hit photographs like this; it is all grass, however right here you’ll be able to hit the ball over vehicles, rooftops.”
However, now that the BPGC has allowed all caddies to play there on a Monday for free, “slum golf is not taking place a lot anymore,” admits Mehboobani.
The future
Although Mehboobani and his colleagues have found a more traditional locale to play golf, he’s still hopeful that slum golf can be an introductory way into a sport which, as he himself knows, can often be inaccessible.
His daughter Ashmi is an embodiment of that desire.
Mehboobani introduced her to the game when she was just five years old after she saw her father playing on the streets and expressed her interest in “hitting the ball.”
During the time when the BPGC didn’t allow caddies to play on its course and they took up playing on the streets, a video of Ashmi playing golf went viral which, according to her father, was one of the reasons for the BPGC allowing them in. BPGC didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Through her father and her coach, who also runs an academy, she has developed an early love for the game, already adopting Tiger Woods as her idol.
Mehboobani is hoping that his daughter’s early start on the streets will propel her to success later in her life.
“We [hope] to make her the women champion as a result of if the membership has supported her this a lot, she is more likely to present good outcomes sooner or later. She will make the membership proud, and she’s going to make the title of her mom and father shine as effectively.”
It’s not simply in India the place road golf is a factor.
Each yr an official cup competitors is contested with the 2021 occasion set to be held in Switzerland in July.
Players might need in the end chosen the inexperienced fairways and greens over the concrete roads and roofs, however slum golf supplied them with a taster and opened doorways to a sport beforehand unattainable to many in Mumbai.
Once enjoying from rooftops, these golfers and those that are following them at the moment are taking pictures for the sky.
