Amrik Rai took the short drive across Wolverhampton to look back to where it all began for his son.
Back to East Park in their home city, where Amrik first took son Aaron with a set of small clubs and a handful of golf balls.
It was usually quiet, meaning there was no rush to get round and Amrik and Aaron could replay the same shot or hole over and over again.Now a double tournament winner on the European Tour, he recently finished in the top 20 of the World Golf Championship event in the USA. There he will tee it up alongside the greats of the modern game. Rory McIlroy, Jordan Speith, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and more will be his competition.For them, there was no obvious pathway through the golf club system, instead it was the parks of Wolverhampton which proved the humble beginnings.He was a good tennis player in his day and as a young coach, he would work with Wolverhampton Council’s parks department in the 1980s.
“Anyone can go to the park. A lot of people think Aaron started at the Three Hammers but it started a long time before that.“It’s not there any more, which is sad.Amrik would love to see the rejuvenation of Wolverhampton’s parks’ golf facilities, and would love to see other working class parents be able to give their children the opportunity to play and develop a love for a sport they could go on to excel in.
“As a family, we’ve always been very humble. I don’t think we would have fitted in at some of the traditional clubs. “At the parks, we could do that and I can see some of the shots Aaron played at a young age in the shots he plays now in tournaments.“What we’ve love to see as a family is the facilities being there for people to do what we did. It’s a shame they are not what they were.“It was only after Aaron’s talent for the game became clear that he began playing at the Three Hammers, and from there to Patshull Park.
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