'I'm hoping for gold': Star golfer Khalin Joshi backs India’s Asian Games golf teams for medal success

NEW DELHI: With the Asian Games beginning in Japan's Aichi-Nagoya, golfer Khalin Joshi has backed India's men's and women's golf teams to challenge for medals.The men's squad features in-form professionals who have excelled both domestically and on the DP World Tour, while the women's team boasts experienced international campaigners.“We have a great team. Yuvraj has been playing excellent golf in Europe, Saptak is leading the Order of Merit, and all of them are riding high on confidence,” he said.“I'm really hopeful they're going to contend. I'm hoping for gold, and I just hope both the men's and women's teams keep the Indian flag flying high.”Joshi insists there has been no dramatic swing change, no new coach and no technical overhaul behind one of the ost consistent spells of his season. The Bengaluru golfer believes the biggest transformation has happened where scores are often decided in the mind.Fresh off his victory at the Nava Raipur Open on Friday, Joshi said “I haven't changed anything much, to be honest. I've just tried to work on my mental game and stay more in the present throughout the round.”That approach proved crucial in Raipur, where relentless rain forced officials to shorten the event to 36 holes. With only nine holes played on each of the final two days, golfers had little room for recovery, making fast starts essential.Rather than playing conservatively, Joshi embraced the conditions. “The moment we heard it was reduced to 36 holes, we knew we had to start from the get-go. Everyone had limited holes, so my mindset was to be aggressive,” he said.“The course was soft, which actually favoured attacking golf. You could hit your numbers and be more aggressive towards the flags.”The win comes at a time when Indian professional golf is enjoying unprecedented depth. Nearly every PGTI event this season has produced tightly contested leaderboards, with established names and emerging youngsters regularly challenging for titles.Joshi believes the increasing prize money and professionalism of the domestic circuit have fundamentally changed the competitive landscape. “The PGTI is very competitive now. We're very top-heavy and the top 20 to 25 players can win on any given week,” he said.He pointed to the current form of golfers including Saptak Talwar, Rashid Khan, Honey Baisoya, Akshay Sharma, Om Prakash Chouhan, Viraj Madappa, Kartik Singh, Kritish Batra and Shubham Jaglan as evidence of the circuit's strength. “People are working harder in the gym and on the golf course. Golf in India is growing by leaps and bounds, and it's only a matter of time before we see many more Indians succeeding internationally.”While technical preparation remains important, Joshi's tournament routine is deliberately uncomplicated. The 33-year-old avoids adding pressure before decisive rounds and instead focuses on slowing everything down. “I sleep well before tournaments and try not to rush anything in the morning,” he said. “I give myself ample time for breakfast, warming up and getting to the tee. Whenever I hurry, things start going haywire. The key for me is to stay slow and just breeze into the first tee.”Interestingly, Joshi says he learns as much from conversations with contemporaries as from senior professionals. Among those he frequently discusses golf with is close friend and DP World Tour regular Shubhankar Sharma. “Shubhankar is a really good friend. We talk regularly about our games and what we're feeling,” Joshi revealed. “Honestly, I try to learn from everybody. It can be a senior player or even a youngster everyone has something valuable to offer.”That openness extends to the increasingly close-knit atmosphere on the Indian tour, where fierce competition coexists with genuine camaraderie.Joshi believes that culture, combined with rising financial opportunities, is inspiring more young golfers to treat the sport as a viable profession.The Raipur champion has little time to celebrate. He returns to action this week at his home course, the Karnataka Golf Association, before a week's break ahead of the Tour Championship at Jaypee Greens and the lucrative DP World India Championship from Oct 15-18 at the Delhi Golf Club where only the top 24 players on the Order of Merit will tee up.For a golfer whose biggest victory this season was built on quieting the mind, the objective remains unchanged. “Just stay present everything else takes care of itself.”Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.