QUEEN’S ROAD: A putting range attracted him like a magnet at the age of eight and since then Vrushank Balu’s vision and span of achievements have only expanded to include bigger golf challenges.
Vrushank, 16, and a student of the TRIO World School, has already travelled across the country to showcase his abundant talent.
“Vrushank was first introduced to tennis but he did not seem to like it much. He always said, he felt too lazy to play the game seriously. Co-incidentally, there was a small putting range at the tennis academy where his sister was training. He seemed to enjoy practising there. Also, the colonel who was managing the putting range told us after observing him that he has a great hand and eye co-ordination and should be encouraged to play golf in a proper set up under a coach,” says Sumana, Vrushank’s mother.
“He was inducted into the junior programme at the Bangalore Golf Club under the guidance of coach Bamby Randhawa. Ever since then, he has been training under him and enjoying every bit of the golf that he is playing,” adds Sumana.
Vrushank won the BGC Independence Cup and the BPCG (Bombay Presidency Golf Club) IGU feeder tour finals in 2013. He also finished 2nd in Chennai in the South Zone tournament, 2013.
Vrushank has also won the JWGC junior and sub-junior Open championships 2014, held at Jaychamaraja Wodeyar Golf Club, Mysore in 2014. Vrushank also won the Ganjam BGC junior tournament in May 2014.
He secured the 3rd position at the KGA junior and sub junior championship held at Karnataka Golf Association and was the overall winner of South Zone junior championship held at Hyderabad Golf Club, Hyderabad.
Despite having missed many classes due to golf assignments, he remains a bright student and carries his study material on tour and tries to catch up with his books as much as possible during tournaments.When he is back from a tournament, he makes up for the lessons he has missed by consulting his teachers during the free time.
His school, Trio World Academy has helped many sports aspirants to pursue their passion as it provides a flexible timetable and takes special classes exclusively for budding champions who cannot be regular.
Sumana believes that it is due to the teachers’ encouragement and motivation that Vrushank has been able to excel in both worlds.
Vrushank admires professional golfers like Tiger Woods, Rory Mcllroy, Anirban Lahiri and Jyoti Randhwa. He considers his coach Bamby Randhawa his role model, Bamby has been a professional golfer himself.
A national player now, Vrushank finished his O levels at the age of 14 and took a year off from his studies to focus on golf as he is extremely passionate about the sport and wants to make a serious career out of it.
“In the years to come, I want to play on the Asian Tour and the European Tour as a professional golfer representing India,” Vrushank says.
This may be a big ambition for so young a lad but then, as they say, "If you can dream it, you can do it."