After Tiger, no one, not even McIlroy or Scheffler, had me raising an eyebrow: Arjun Atwal

India’s only PGA Tour winner rates Indian Open title at Royal over Wyndham win in 2010

World No.1 since last May, nine wins on the PGA Tour in 25 months, a 65% chance of finishing in the top 10 and, after Sunday, as many Players Championship titles as Tiger Woods. Reason enough to ask if Scottie Scheffler and Woods can be part of the same sentence?

File photo Arjun Atwal(Getty Images)

Arjun Atwal shakes his head. Rephrase the question and ask India’s only winner on the PGA Tour if Scheffler’s form can be compared with Woods at his best. More shaking of the head follows. “And if you ask them, they will tell you the same thing,” he said. Scheffler did. “The guy (Woods) stands alone I think in our game. He really does,” Scheffler said after winning in Florida at the weekend.

Atwal understands why. “Because what Woods did between 1997 and 2010, I don’t think too many human beings will be ever able to do it.”

From 2004, when he got his PGA Tour card, Atwal saw it up close. “It was like, “there’s no way you can beat this guy.” And we

PGA Tour prize money (too) has gone up. It should have never happened like that. If you had the money, why didn’t you put it in? Then, the players would not have left. And if you didn’t have the money, why didn’t you take a deal with the PIF or LIV?”

Well, PGA Tour is now. On Monday, player directors including Woods met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a meeting described by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan as “constructive”, as per an AP report.

Atwal is at home and that means he is at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC), “where they make the best samosas”. From Thursday,

he will be playing in the $300,000 Kolkata Challenge, a tournament co-sanctioned by The Challenge Tour, Europe’s second tier men’s tour, and Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI). It will be Atwal’s first competition on the course he grew up on since 2014.

“My friends can come and make fun of me,” he told HT on Tuesday.

Coinciding with the Pro-Am on a wet and grey Wednesday was his birthday. The last time he played here on his birthday was in the last century, “when I was still playing the Asian Tour and living in Kolkata.”

At 51, Atwal is sure he would be the oldest player in the tournament that also features SSP Chawrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Om Prakash Chauhan along with Challenge Tour players Mikael Lindberg, Bjorn Akesson, Martin Couvra, and current leader John Parry. This is the first time in 25 years that RCGC is hosting an international tournament. The last time that happened, in 1999, Atwal won the Indian Open with Chawrasia finishing second.

Atwal rated that win above his sole PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship in 2010. “Indian Open was my first international

title and it was at Royal. I have never felt pressure like I did that weekend. I have won tournaments with more prize money and thought they were bigger, but it was when I was looking at my trophies at home (in Orlando, Florida) some months back that I realised I was fooling myself.”

Having qualified for the PGA Tour Champions, the senior tour, Atwal is making an exception playing this week. “I would rather

play with my age group where I can still hit it long enough to compete. All these young guys, they hit it so far…”

Golf has got younger and more athletic, he said. The average age on the PGA Tour in 2004 was 32, it is 26 now, said Atwal. Again, it was Woods who changed things.

“Tiger annihilated courses mainly with his length, week in and week out. These kids grew up watching that and they all got into

that. Before Tiger came along, very few people would lift weights. We would do our own thing, drink beer after a round but these kids are turning golf into an athletic sport. Which is great to see.”

This year, Atwal said he planned to play 15 tournaments on the senior tour. The rest of the time he would want to spend with

his two sons who are aspiring to be professional basketball players. “Basically guide them, because they are athletes, and go to their games.”

The first Indian to win on the Korn Ferry, PGA and European tours, Atwal now aims to go where no compatriot has on USA's top

seniors circuit. Do that by 55 and retire “to live life a little bit". And work on setting up public driving ranges in India with help from the government. Like it is in Japan and South Korea.

“Courses there are expensive but most of the guys on the tour, they come out hitting like machines because of the public driving

ranges.” That’s also how Atwal honed his skills when he went to Long Island for high school. And on public courses in the USA. “Anyone who wants to play golf should be able to and the ranges will be the first step,” he said.