Taking a cue from this trend, the Indian Golf Union (IGU) has decided to introduce yoga among the country’s promising junior golfers who will be participating in the most prestigious junior golfing tournament in Asia, the Asia-Pacific Golf Championship in Manila from May 7 to 10.

At the helm of the eight-member squad is golfer-coach Indrajit Bhalotia, who himself has been advocating yoga for the past few years. At a press meet to announce the details of the Manila meet, Bhalotia said: “This junior side will go through a one-hour yoga session every morning during the week-long preparatory camp starting today that will end on April 30 at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC). The Bihar School of Yoga, which has helped out top golfers like Atwal in recent times, has come forward to help these junior golfers. SSP Chowrasia, who is from this school, will be conducting the routine golf training. After that, I will take charge of practice throughout the year following inputs from Chowrasia.”

To ensure the juniors excel in the tournament — they finished runners-up in the last edition — the IGU has appointed fitness trainer Ranadip Moitra to look after the team on the fitness front.

The head of the IGU’s junior programme, Jaydeep Chitlangia, said that this team has the potential to clinch the title. He said: “The four boys who have been selected in the team are in tremendous form. Rashid Khan, the caddy boy from the Delhi Golf Club, Rahul Bakshi, the champion in both the junior and senior national championships recently, Chikarangappa and Asveer Saini — all these four players hold a lot of promise and they are looking quite optimistic.”