Time has nothing better to do, than elapse. In the summer of 2013 I was driving around Kashmir with only my golf clubs for company. I wrote a swashbuckling, admittedly embellished account of my golfing adventures in Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam in my very first column for FE. Looking back, and randomly sifting through the archives of this column (admittedly a self-indulgent exercise) there are more than a few moments—way beyond the scope of this column to recount—here are the ones that made the highlight reel.
When Tiger Woods won the 2013 Players Championship—the biggest of his five PGA Tour victories that year—bookies offered excellent odds for the GOAT to add another Major to his tally. Woods’ comeback, after his injury-related absence from 2009 to 2012, was finally complete when he won the 2013 WGC Bridgestone Invitational and was in the running for the FedEx Cup. But Woods couldn’t catch the tall Swede, Henrik Stenson, who won the 2013 Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup with it pocketing $12.88 million just from the playoffs. A windfall if you consider that, at the time, Stenson had $17 million in career earnings on the (then) European Tour.
Three years later it was Stenson’s turn to go down when he was edged out by Justin Rose on the 72nd hole at golf’s historic return to the Olympics. In the annals of golf, 2016 is going to go down as the year of the Olympics. And it was a fitting triumph for Rose, who, self-admittedly, was fascinated by the prospect of going down in history as the first golfer in the modern era to compete and win in the biggest sporting spectacle in the world. Professional golfers play golf to make a living; it’s as simple as that; and that week at the Olympics elevated the game back into the realm of pure sport.
For Indians the 2016 Games will always be synonymous with Aditi Ashok. Merely 18-years-old at the time, Ashok captured the imagination of the country in unprecedented fashion, narrowly missing out on a medal. The Bengaluru girl built on the momentum from the Rio Games to win the gruelling LET Q-school, then the Women’s Indian Open and the Qatar Ladies Open in consecutive weeks. Ashok made 207355 Euros in 2016—fuelled by a incredible nine top-ten finishes—and won the rookie of the year award.
No one, including your columnist could have foreseen that Woods would not win again for the next five years. Woods’ absence is never good for the game, but the one thing that emerged during that period was the emergence of a depth of field that had been missing in the previous years. By 2018, 14 Majors crowned 14 different winners. The sport that had become a one-man show during the 2000s began featuring a global ensemble. Woods wasn’t done yet: the man staged yet another comeback at the 2018 Tour Championship, and, finally, that glorious Major win at the Masters Tournament in 2019.
And then, out of nowhere, along came the pandemic. In some parts of the world, golf’s popularity soared, as lockdowns around the world turned courses into sanctuaries—open-air and socially distanced. Post the pandemic, there was a noticeable surge in the number of players teeing it up, especially amongst the younger generation. In some ways the image of the game got a makeover from a ‘slow and boring’ activity to an aspirational healthy sport, a social media trend, and a mental health tonic.
In June 2021, LIV Golf was launched: professional golf would never be the same again. Bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’ Public Investment Fund–one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world–LIV didn’t just disrupt the dominance of established tourneys like the PGA Tour, it exposed deep fault lines between players and tours’ managements. Phil Mickelson was among the first to sign up, and was soon followed by the likes of Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and India’s Anirban Lahiri, among others. The PGA Tour’s messy merger with LIV–the announcement for which was announced in 2023—-is yet to come to fruition. LIV, meanwhile, has backed the International Series–a sub-tourney on the Asian Tour—-to expand its global reach. For fans around the world, all that matters is that the big events—-the Major Championships—-have a full-strength field. That means inclusion of players on the LIV Tour.
The Masters Committee took a step in this regard when they sent a special invitation to Joaquin Niemann to compete in the 2025 Masters. Niemann will be joined by 12 LIV players at the event in April this year. The man to beat is the defending champion who has no intention of giving up his Green Jacket just as yet. In 2024, Scheffler arrived at Augusta with the quiet confidence of a man whose game—high, towering irons, ability to control spin on Augusta’s glassy greens, and steady temperament— was built for Augusta National. Scheffler left with another Green Jacket, winning by four shots. With Tiger Woods expected to play, and a long list of probables, this year’s Masters Tournament feels primed for drama.
Twelve years is a long time to write about one sport. The game, like time, doesn’t stand still. There’s always another story, another swing, another tournament that rewrites the narrative. And it all started with that first write up on Kashmir. Given personal safety considerations, that solo road trip was clearly ill-advised. As I read it now, the writing betrays both: a passion for the game that obscures common sense, and the bravado of youth. At least that bit hasn’t changed: my passion for the game remains undiminished (and continues to outshine performance). The bravado, on the other hand, like all silly things, has been cast aside. I’m reminded of a line from The Legend of Bagger Vance: “Golf is a game that can’t be won, only played.” The same could be said of writing about it. Thank you for letting me play.
Meraj Shah is a seasoned golf writer and video producer
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