The not so home course
While four foreign golfers, including eventual winner Mardan Mamat, finished with scores of more than ten-under, the best score among the Bangladeshi golfers is Shakhawat Hossain Sohel's two-under (282).
But should this have been so, considering the fact that these golfers know the course at this Kurmitola Golf Club like the back of their hands and some of them often score 18- or 19- under in local professional and even amateur tournaments here. So what suddenly went wrong for them?
The golfers cited quite a few reasons; some said it was their inexperience of playing during the rain as play is stopped here as soon as rain starts in local events. Others pointed the lack of playing against such good golfers and the stage-fright thereof.
Sohel, who scored three-under and two-under in the final two rounds after a somewhat indifferent start, felt the reasons involve technical aspects of the game and the changes made for this tournament.
“It is true that we never play here if it rains, but there are other things which need to be taken into account,” said the 30-year-old golfer.
“Firstly, the 72-par course has been reduced to 71-par for this event; so you can just deduct four from the overall score that we get during local events here.
Then there has been an overboundary (OB) imposed on the fourth hole, which has made it difficult for us to keep the stroke on the fairway. Another thing which happened for this event is that the rough has been heightened quite a few inches all over the course which made our job much harder to roll the ball from the rough towards the green,” added Sohel.
However, Sohel believes the experience of taking part in this event alongside some big names from across Asia and beyond will give the local golfers a tremendous confidence boost.
And there is good news from the AT authorities too. The hosting of BBO has ensured that Bangladesh will be getting four 'country spots' from now on, as opposed to a single one offered thus far, in the AT events.
There will also be six country spots for Bangladesh in the Asian Development Tour events.
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