DGC yet to reply to my letter, seems they don’t want an end: Rashid

By Debayan Mukherjee

Kolkata, June 21 (IANS) Rashid Khan, India's leading professional golfer, has revealed that he is yet to get a reply from the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) regarding the standoff between the player and the club. The golfer had written to the DGC on June 3 and feels that the mandarins there do not want an end to the problem which saw him and nine other professional/amateur golfers being taken to the Tughlaq Road police station last month.

While the 28-year-old two-time Asian Champion had stated that he was being discriminated because of his humble background, DGC president Major Ravinder Singh Bedi (retired) dismissed the claims saying Khan and the other golfers' repeatedly attempted to bring the reputation of the club down by causing ruckus.

Rashid, in reply to DGC's allegations, has written a letter to the committee members, saying he wants to have a discussion with them and that fighting was not the solution.

"Till now I haven't got any reply from them. It doesn't look like they want to finish this," Rashid told IANS.

The letter, accessed by IANS, reads: "There has been a misunderstanding and we would like to clear a few things, discuss the future of golf and promote that. We never wanted membership, something which did not happen in 20 years, why will we ask for it now?"

In the seven points, Rashid charted out the allegations levelled on the golfers by the DGC.

"When there could have been a verbal discussion, he (security guard) had no right to raise his hand on me. He instigated the fight not me, I slapped back in self defence," he wrote.

Rashid also alleged that DGC commented on his earnings which, he said, is out in the open on "golf sites". "I have not taken any money from anyone," Rashid wrote.

In January this year, Rashid had accused the DGC of discrimination, which, he said, was ruining careers of golfers like him coming from humble backgrounds. In 2012, he said the DGC stopped allowing caddie-turned-players from practising at the course.

(Debayan Mukherjee can be contacted at debayan.m@ians.in)