Anshul Mishra took to golf as a hobby or rather his parents introduced him to the sport to keep him busy. Anshul was four, and unknown to the child and parents, the interest would soon become a passion that would take the Kolkata golfer to the podium of the US Kids World Championship as a runner-up.
Anshul’s first coach was Binod Pandey and at 6 played his first tournament in Jamshedpur over 9 holes. That stoked a fire and competitions became a regular feature. In 2017, he played the SSP Chowrasia Junior Golf Challenge hosted by Ultimate Golf Foundation at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC). The 8-year-old won to qualify for the Jyoti Randhawa Tournament at the Classic Golf and Country Club in Gurugram. Due to circumstances, Anshul could make the trip, but a statement had been made.
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In 2018, he played the SSP Chowrasia Tournament again and qualified for the Jyoti Randhawa Tournament as the winner. He could travel this time and maintained the tempo with another win. The result came with the opportunity to feature in the US Kids World Championship at Pinehurst, North Carolina. It was a learning experience as Anshul finished T17 with a score of 5-over.
The Burgundy status that came with the win gave him the privilege of playing the US Kids World Championship in 2019. It was a marked improvement this time as Anshul finished runner up after 3 days with a score of 8-under.
In the desire to step up, Anshul has been training under Jesse Grewal for the past six months and travels to Chandigarh regularly to see Grewal, who also coaches European Tour professional Shubhankar Sharma.
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Fitness is an integral aspect of an athlete’s journey and Ranadeep Moitra and yoga instructor Madhusatta Chaudhary are in charge of this department.
The results are now coming in regularly. Earlier this year, Anshul won the Albatross Tournament at Tollygunge Club not only in Category B, he had the best score across all categories after three days.
His parents and school as bedrocks of support, the 12-year-old Class 8 student follows a taxing schedule. Waking up at 4am, Anshul starts with stretching exercises before leaving for practice at 5:30am and is at it till 7:30 am. Thereafter, it is school till 1:30 pm before heading back to the club. Evening practice is followed by a two-hour gym session, which is exhausting, and the boy is in bed by 8.15pm.
Getting into a regimen early in life has helped add purpose and Anshul hopes discipline and hard work will take him to his goals. Among them are winning Majors and representing India at the Olympics.
Photo credit: Anshul Mishra
