Shiv Kapur has finally found the right touch on European greens — unfortunately, it has been accompanied by another shortcoming. Two top tens in his last seven starts have come as a big confidence boost to Kapur, but it is a lot more consistency he craves, and the one aspect the Delhi player seems to be unhappy about is his bunker play. “I’ve been playing quite well in recent tournaments; unfortunately, each round had me finding either a double bogey or a triple bogey because of my bunker play and pushing me down the leaderboard,” the 27-year-old said, speaking to Sportline on Wednesday.

So, with this week at home, Kapur has been doing specific work in that area, and helping him out is fellow pro Ashok Kumar.

“Ashok and I had a one-hour session yesterday. I’m pretty happy with how it has worked out, and I’ll hopefully be able to cut down on the key errors that I was making,” he said.

Kapur is also making a slow move to slightly different clubs, so that the proposed change from next year in club spins comes without any stumbles. A new rule from the Royal and Ancient Golf Club will have U-shaped grooves on wedges banned in favour of V-shaped grooves from 2010. “The idea is to give more value to accuracy off the driver, rather than just distance. The debate was whether to keep making golf courses longer and longer or push the existing technology back. With the new wedges, playing out from the rough will be harder as the spin on the ball will be reduced. I’m trying to adapt to that,” Kapur said.

... contd.