Smriti Mehra, the 52-year-old golfer is back in circuit after serious injuries and surgeries. The first Indian woman golfer to be chosen to play on the elite LPAG tour, Smriti has come a long way since she started playing in the 90s.
She is known for her resilience. In Mumbai for an Omega watches event at Time Avenue, Smriti discussed how she got over her injuries and golf among other things.
Excerpts from an interview
You started playing golf when it was not such a known sport in India. Who, besides your mother, was the inspiration?
Wow, My friends? I grew up with three boys and we all played golf and one of those boys was Arjun Atwal the Indian professional golfer, who’s the only male Indian who have made it at the same time as I did.
Most often shoulder injury is the end of it… how did counter it, your regime and guide for that?
Just work really hard swim whenever you have an injury, I think the best advice I can give anybody is get into the pool and start, you know, working your whole body. The fastest way to recovery is getting into the water and eating the right foods, you know, your body needs a lot of magnesium and all of that, so pay attention to what goes into your body.
Today, you being the first Indian woman to join LPGA tour, do you see more women joining the sport?
After me, there’s only been one more and it took her 20 years to make it after I did. I made it in 1997, she made it in 2017 or 2016. And nobody senses a really difficult sport, it’s very tight. There are hundreds of people who try and make it and maybe ten or 15 make it out of every thousand or so. It is difficult, but if we have the right people in charge of growing the game, I think we’ll have a lot more players then.
What needs to be done to make golf more popular and taking away the tag of “rich man’s game” from it?
Showcase the people who have actually made it in Golf. If you look at the golfers from India who’ve actually made it did not come from rich families, you know. We have people like Feroz Ali Mollah in Calcutta, We have Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia who is an Arjuna award winner. None of them came from a rich family.
