I stopped with the 30 or so other spectators to watch the action.

One of the contestants saw me doing my Dan Marino impression up in the `bleachers’. He either thought I looked like a `player’, or thought I’d make a good laugh. I was invited down to try. Now, it’s been a few years since I tried to throw a football for any distance, but I used to have a pretty good arm.

The dart was a sharpened iron rod, about 2 feet long, with feathers. The `handle’ was just a rounded block of wood. I did a few stretches, wound up, and fired. Five yards left, and a good 15 yards short. Second toss, same result, instant replay. It turned out that I was a good laugh. I stayed a few minutes longer, and was astounded at their strength and accuracy; two direct hits in that short time. And after a hit, the opposing team does a little song and dance, facing the target that had just been hit. I must find out what that is about. My guess is some sort of reprimand to the target, and asking it too not be so accessible.

The national sport is archery, and it doesn’t seem possible that they could hit the target from the distances they are shooting from, nearly 200 yards. Their focus is inspiring, and the juniors seem to have it naturally.

Unjaded Junior Golfers

Vijay Singh managed to reach world’s- number- one- golfer, growing up in a non-golfing environment. There are only three obstacles to one of these kids making it on the PGA Tour, lack of playing time, lack of competitions, and lack of equipment. They have the coaching. In some ways, except for those three, they have a fighting chance. After all, you can play year round in Bhutan, unlike in Nova Scotia.

When we go out to play the course on the only day they can, Monday, they each get one ball, and one or two clubs. They share clubs, so there is a driver, fairway metal, mid and short iron, and putter for each foursome. The driver might have a loft of 8.5 with a stiff, cut-off shaft, which makes it even stiffer. Compare this to our young guys and girls, with the latest, often fitted, equipment. If a junior is reading this, please be grateful. You definitely have a head start.

And if the ball is lost, Game Over. Their keen eyes can find it anywhere, except in water, as many of these kids caddy to help with the family living expenses. But one of the hardest things I have ever had to tell an eager junior golfer, was `you can’t play any more, there are no balls’.

And these kids can play. They had no well intended but harmful instruction from Dad, on `keeping your head down’, and `stiffen that left arm’. The only coaching they have had was professional, through the BYGA Program.

I was happy to see way less of the harmful `reverse pivot’, an epidemic in North America, which can be traced directly to the `head on the ball and down’ nonsense. These Bhutanese youth missed the faulty instruction, thereby missing the bad stuff.

And there were no `scoopers’ in the lot, not one. These youth learned to play on bare dirt. The only way to hit a golf ball with any kind of success was to `pinch’ it, or `squeeze it’ off the ground. Unlike some of our super lush, forgiving fairways in North America, here a molecule off meant a bad shot. They learned on their own and from each other, out of necessity, to do what the Golfing Machine stresses, impact with a forward leaning shaft.

As the program progresses I wonder if any `Golden Eagles’, the rare person with talent and initiative, will emerge. Already some of these guys can par their long and tricky nine hole course. (I just found out that three players will be sent by the BYGA to India, for their first major tournament. And I also found that 80 boxes of clubs and balls were recently sent).

The photograph is of a youngster I saw walking down the street, hitting rocks. Notice the club; home made!