5 things you probably didn't know about Shubham Jaglan

Lots more in store for the budding 10-year-old Shubham Jaglan

Shubham Jaglan is a name that hasn’t been heard of in Indian households. However, the 10-year-old golfer, who hails from Panipat district in Haryana, has been making waves in the golf world by recently winning some major titles in succession.

After winning the Taylormade World Juniors in July 2013, Shubham has now won the IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf event in Las Vegas on the 23rd of July, and this victory comes less than a week after his triumph at the Junior World Golf Championships which took place on July 19th in California.

In this article, we look at 5 things which you didn't know about Shubham Jaglan:

1. Shubham learnt to play golf in the village of Israna, which is near Panipat district in Haryana where his father was a milkman, and was against him playing golf. His potential, however, couldn't be ignored and his family shifted to New Delhi, where more competition and better facilities were available to him and this shift clearly helped improve his game in leaps and bounds.

2. He receives an annual scholarship of Rs. 2 lakhs from the Delhi Golf Foundation and a free membership in the Delhi Golf Club. He credits his parents and the DCG’s support for his accomplishments, and also claims that his school(Laxman Public School) has helped improve his language skills, which are essential for a budding golfer.

3. Shubham comes from a village where wrestling is more common than teeing off. His grandfather claims that the Jaglan family has a rich history of wrestlers and initially encouraged his grandson to take up wrestling. As Shubham explains:

"I started off by playing golf in our 'sarson ka khet' (mustard field). My grandfather asked me to take up a new sport instead of an obvious and much easier choice - wrestling. I learnt golf from the internet as there was no coach or mentor in our village. Seeing my interest in the game, my father took me to Madhuban golf course in Karnal."

4. Highly ambitious, Shubham wants to break Jack Nicklaus' record of most majors won. However, he lists Severiano Ballesteros and Gary Player as his inspirations.

5. True to his heritage, Shubham is very humble and down-to-earth and performs well at school too. When questioned on the difference of taking up golf in India and in the United States, he gave a very wise answer, considering his age:

"Golf facilities in the US gives ample opportunities for kids to take up golf. While in India, most of the parents only think of medals. However, in the western countries there is no pressure on kids to win medals."