The Magical Years Of Raw Talent

TODAY’S GAME HAS ADVANCED DUE TO NEW TECHNOLOGY. BUT HAVE WE MADE FULL USE OF MODERN SCIENCE?

Whenever I have to advise young lawyers, I tell them that they have a lot of advantages which in my time, we never had. So much more education, information, help from law firms and supporting parents, if not spoiling parents.

On the other hand, there is so much more competition these days and the future will be affected by advances in technology. Nevertheless, the qualities required for success remain the same, hard work, intelligence, knowledge in many subjects, great understanding of people and talent.

So it is the same for golfers. Young golfers now have much more help, coaching, tournaments and supportive parents and much more competition compared to 50 years ago.

So many golf courses to play on and starting at a young age with proper instruction. But are they better golfers and producing better results?

Certainly they need to practice much harder as there are many more competitors here and in other countries.

When I first started playing golf at (The Royal Selangor Golf Club) The Selangor Golf Club in the late 60’s, the game was played by adults who had only lately taken up the game. We had only one Australian pro, Len Boorer who ran the pro shop and gave lessons.

The best players were the foreigners and some of them were very good players playing to scratch. There were no young golfers at the club.

With Independence, The Malaysian Golf Association under their first Malaysian President, H.S. Lee (later Tun Sir Henry H.S. Lee) quickly formed a national team, which consisted of Malaysians. These were true amateurs, club golfers who had taken up the game as adults, played recreational golf, low handicappers who worked for a living and only played golf after work.