Joseph Schooling to add buzz to BT golf league

Singapore

IN ADDITION to having fun, The Business Times Corporate Golf League is set to experience a bit of star power next month.

The man who will soon feature in the annual competition is no "Ordinary Joe", but a sportsman who is highly acclaimed and well recognised around the world.

Olympic gold medal winner Joseph Schooling is slated to play for the Team BOSS in the BT League's fourth leg at the National Service Resort and Country Club at Changi on Aug 23.

"I'm very excited to be part of the BOSS golf team. My dad is in it too and it's another chance for me to play with him and my friends. I hope to bring a whole bunch of energy and different dynamics, and a lot of fun to the event," the 24-year-old said.

His father Colin is himself a sportsman, having been a national softball player, a leading club golfer and the man who introduced golf to his son.

THE BUSINESS TIMES INSIGHTS

Powering Asean's Future 2026

Find out how enterprises are navigating power constraints and sustainability targets

ACCESS THE INSIGHTS

The younger Schooling picked up the game very fast because his father and mother, May, were also walking the fairways and greens then as social golfers at Tanah Merah Country Club (TMCC).

Joseph has played golf since he was four years old, and he improved over time with the help of a professional coach.

"He taught me my swing, the fundamentals of the game and strategy. I was very lucky to have a professional teach me from a young age."

That coach was Kim Baldwin, an Australian instructor who was then attached to TMCC. Said Mr Baldwin: "I have been coaching kids for a long time. I must say Joe was among the better students, easily picking up the pointers because of his tremendous natural ability."

In fact, Joseph was exceptional because he earned his proficiency certificate (PC) at the age of six, just after the local golfing rules were changed from being mandatory to those above 12 years to one strictly based on game ability.

So from playing restrictively at the two TMCC courses (Garden and Tampines) with a PC, mostly over nine holes, he graduated to obtaining his handicap within a couple of years - another rare feat in Singapore.

Joseph's tight swimming schedule (he is currently competing at the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea) has kept him away from the golf courses. He has a current handicap index of 15, although his lowest has been 9.6.

He says: "Golf is a very sacred time for me and I only play it with my close friends and my dad. My overall game is decent, my short game is pretty inconsistent because I don't play that often. Putting is more consistent than my short game, I'd say it's a second behind my iron play. I feel more comfortable standing over the ball with my iron than a wood."

Joseph, who once said that his favourite golfer was Jordan Spieth (probably because he is Texan and Joseph studied at Texas University), idolises American Tiger Woods for "his tenacity, his mindset and what he has accomplished".

As for the game itself, he says: "The benefits of playing golf are multifold. It is good for networking and at the same time, trains a person on mental toughness and creativity because you've got to create different types of shots from different positions."

Joseph is likely to partner his 70-year-old father at the BT League event next month. However, Colin, a former single-handicapper who played at three major pro-am events - with Ronan Rafferty in 1995, Mark McNulty in 1997 and Eduardo Romero in 2000 - all at St Andrews in Scotland, has seen his handicap soar to 18 with age.

But father and son have both the bond and experience to help Team BOSS - currently joint-second in the standings after the first leg - keep their momentum in the league, which is now into its 10th year.