Major Muhammad Almas Uddin (Retd) is a keen golfer. Currently working with the Leadbetter Indoor Golf Academy at Dhaka as COO and with an inside-out knowledge of local golf, talks about it, his golfing ideology and Bangladesh’s prospects in the game.
What prompted you to join the Leadbetter Golf Academy as its Chief Operating Officer?
I love golfing. It’s one of my passions. I want to contribute in this wonderful event of games. Bangladesh golf has immense potentials. In whatever capacity it may be, I want to remain involved with golf. As such, I thought the Leadbetter Golf Academy (LGABD) is a very good option to fulfill my dream.
What contributions are you making?
LGABD is a fully equipped golf learning center in Bangladesh, be it is about instruments or having professional coaches. Our teaching methodology is very scientific and modern. We possess everything needed for all levels of golfers. By imparting quality training to them, we are trying to create new golfers who can perform well in the regional or international level. Our celebrity golfer Sidduqur Rahman, Jamal Mollah and many other pros are trained by our coach Dr Andru Argus. They are performing pretty well. Beside the professionals, we have trained few thousands mateurs who are playing well these days. Specially with the juniors, good number of them are regular trophy winners in the club tournaments. Few thousands minors from different schools at Dhaka are trained under LBKS. They are not yet ready to enter the course for membership and other limitations.
Is LGABD a profitable venture?
LGABD is established from the sense of a social obligation by our CEO Mr Momin Ud Dowlah. He termed it as a kind of social business. So, no question of make money out of LGABD. After break-even we would spend our rest of the money for golf development through coaching as well as sponsring good players specially the juniors to participate in international tournaments. As a passionate golfer, Mr Momin’s dream is to produce as many as ‘the Siddiqur’, possible by next five years through quality coaching who can bring country’s fame. He believes, Bangladesh has that potentials to create so.
Bangabandhu Cup Golf Bangladesh Open will be held in April. What is your expectation from this tournament? Will you extend any facilities to the participants?
We have already expressed our wish to assist local professionals, national team and local trainers to give them coaching with a very minimal or in some cases no charge at all for sustainable development in golf to appropriate authority. About forthcoming Asian Tour, BPGA and few senior professionals are informed about our intentions to assist. But before the tournament they are unwilling to change their game style through corrections. Probably this conception is not correct. Any minor rectification in their swing etc. would give immense benefits. Whatever may be the case, this great event of Bangladedh golf is a matter of pride for us. We want our local pros to do well. Hopefully, this time also they will fulfil our expectations.
Which (What) packages are you offering for the Junior golfers?
For the juniors we have three types of training programs at the moment. These are under our Leadbetter Kids School (LBKS). Besides teaching golf from the scratch, the curriculum include social and language skill, ethics etc. The LBKS programs include Prep School, ages 3-5;
Level-1, ages 6+; Level-2, ages 6+17. All these for a duration of 20 weeks. We are thinking about starting Level 3 & 4 after obtaining course facilities for the trainees.
What is your message to golfing enthusiasts?
I strongly believe that Bangladesh will have few more good golfers within a short while. For that, promising golfers may be short listed and given more opportunities to learn and practice the game perfectly. It is not the ‘practice’ that can help improving golf, rather it is ‘perfect practice’ that can be beneficial highly. Our Head Coach Dr Andrew Argus is a famous coach in Asia Pacific. He is a doctorate in swing mechanics out of 25 Professionals worldwide. Golfers will be highly benefited from his coaching knowledge. He has coaching experience of 40 years. LGABD is always ready to contribute golf in Bangladesh. To have remarkable development in golf in a short while, good quality training is a must. The Leadbetter Golf Academy Bangladesh can accomplish this task very efficiently.
