Hungry for success would best describe Chapchai Nirat’s approach on the golf course, but it wasn’t long ago when the Thai golfer had wrestled —and won — with the very basic feeling the word describes.
Golf runs rich in the 29year-old’s veins – he hails from a family of golfers — but one of his early battles was with the bulge. The skills to win that battle though were honed in a monastery.
“I felt hungry all the time and ate a lot because of which I put on a lot of weight,” the Thai said. “I weighed 91 kilos at one point. I didn’t know how to curb my urge for food so I went for meditation classes at a Buddhist monastery.
The course was for 20 days.
Since then, I’ve been able to control my eating habits and diet. I’ve lost 10 kilos in the last one year.” Nirat, who turned pro at the tender age of 15, is called King Kong by his fellow Thai mates, hardly in keeping with his calm and composed demeanour. The sobriquet stems from his brutal swing – he strikes the ball incredibly hard.
On his decision to turn pro, the father of two said, “My father told me that if I wanted to be a part of the Thailand international team then I’d have to turn professional. Although, I was too raw, I decided to turn pro. It has been a very challenging experience, but I’ve learnt a lot.
Another reason why I turned pro early was because I wanted to earn a living.” A resident of Bangkok, Nirat shot into the limelight in 2009 when he won the SAIL Open in India with a world record 72-hole score of 32-under-par 256.
But he has failed to both replicate or better that effort. He hasn’t won a title since. Nirat though is untroubled.
“It has been a difficult time. I’ve been working on my game. The short game has been ok for the last 4-5 weeks. My driving has been good too. I hope to win the Indian Open.” Going into the final round, Nirat is in tied sixth position, but he has a monk-like assurance that his time will come.