A TEEN'S TACTICAL TRIUMPH

Ananthi Vivek is reaping rewards of her untiring passion for golf and persistent practice

- SONU M KOTHARI

It's been five years, and yet, stories from the COVID days — of new skills acquired, passions followed, or ventures born — keep cropping up quietly in our every day conversations. One such new chapter was entered by Ananthi Vivek when she signed up for a summer camp at the Tamil Nadu Golf Federation (TNGF) course in Chennai.

It was not just a summer camp but a way to explore a new sport. "I started playing golf just before COVID at a summer camp. It was something that I just started on the side because I was anyway playing a lot of other sports. And my granddad used to play golf. He would say, 'If you can play golf, you can play anything.' That's how I kind of got into it."

A year later, during the mayhem of the pandemic, Ananthi decided to take golf seriously because it was the only sport she could play in the open space. The golfer also has an expertise in a number of reaction-based sports like squash, tennis, and basketball. "But in golf, the approach is very different. It makes you think and strategise, and you'll never really have the same shot to hit twice," says Ananthi, who was trained by coach Jayanan at TNGF.

She adds, "The lifestyle the sport offers — the holistic gym training, the physical conditioning and the mental training — requires different aspects to be good at." Soon, golf became more than just a game — an indispensable part of her.