From golfing Staff to Golfing star

Meet Chikkarangappa: How A Golf Staff Became A Golfing Star!

Chikkarangappa joined a golf resort as a worker to earn a paltry wage of Rs. 50 per day. At a tender age of 10, he joined Eagleton Golf Resort to earn some money and make ends meet. But gradually, he got fascinated by the sport. He would watch the players for hours and finally, he couldn’t help but develop an interest in the game. He made a golf stick out of a branch of a tree and practiced golf swings in his spare time.

Some time later, he managed to get a real golf stick and started practicing. One fine day, a coach Vijay Dhivecha, noticed him swinging his golf stick and asked him if he would like to play the sport professionally. It came as a great surprise to Chikka, and initially he was reluctant to take up the offer due to his family’s poor background, but he eventually agreed and convinced his family too. Since then there has been no turning back.

He gave everything he had to the sport and even quit his schooling to take up golf full time. He played his first professional tournament in Ooty and bagged the second position. Later that year, he participated in another championship at Eagleton at the age of 11 and won his first trophy.

Chikkarangappa S bagged yet another trophy as he won TAKE Solutions India Masters on November 1 scoring a total of 18-under 270 after marking an amazing two stroke victory. Chikka’s victory over Abhishek Jha was his fourth professional victory, making him earn $12,250 and a two-year exemption on the ADT.

Jha was in six-shot lead over Chikka in the game but the latter made a dramatic comeback and remarkably snatched the victory from Jha’s hands.
“This was my first win as a pro on my home course. I always felt something was missing. For the last two weeks, after my grandfather passed away, golf wasn’t even on my mind. I dedicate this win to him,” said the 21 year old golfer to The Hindu.

This young golfer from Eagleton Golf Resort became the second Indian after Sujjan Singh to win on the Asian Development Tour. The journey till this stage has not been easy for Chikka. Born to a farmer father and a daily wage labourer mother in a small village Bidadi, near Bangalore, Chikka always faced various financial
restrictions.

Thus, having started by using a tree branch to practice golf swings, great passion made the farmer’s boy became a golfing sensation.