Bangladesh golf pro inspires with rags-to-riches tale

Dhaka, Sept 17: In a country where golf is a game of billionaires and the military elite, Bangladesh`s first professional golfing champion, 24-year-old former ball boy Siddiqur Rahman, is an anomaly.For most of his childhood, Rahman, who hails from a poor family, collected the balls of golfers who shot them behind bushes and other hard-to-access areas at the Kurmitola Golf Club in Dhaka. He also worked as a caddy sometimes. Last month, he won a title in the Professional Golf Tour of India, capping a career that began in 1999 and which has seen him win prizes in most golf tournaments in Southeast Asia. He`s now set his eyes on the prestigious US PGA Tour. "If I can continue developing my skill further, I don`t think it is very impossible," he told reporters. At the age of 22, Rahman became one of the youngest Bangladeshis to garner the national golf award in 2006 when he won four consecutive tournaments in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. "The national sports award inspired me to try to take the game professionally," he said. "In my first India tournament I made a hole-in-one, which also came as huge inspiration." Bangladesh has only nine golf courses, all managed by the armed forces. Kurmitola, where Rahman worked, is the country`s top golf club, and only armed forces officers ranked colonel or above, businessmen and senior government officers can become members. Rahman, one of four siblings, took on the ball-boy job in 1994 when he was in primary school to help his father, a taxi driver, support his family that lived in a Dhaka slum. Four years later, the club allowed him to use the facilities to play the game with other employees, and he finished high school while still working as a ball boy. "Before coming to the club I knew nothing about the sport and my job was to carry the bags of the members and keep an eye on the ball," he recalled. Grameenphone, the leading cellular company of Bangladesh, came forward to sponsor Rahman after his first win at the national tournament, and he says that this has helped him develop his skills and turn professional. Rahman is now an honorary member of the Kurmitola club, an achievement many in Bangladesh consider outstanding for a ball-boy with humble roots. Bureau Report