The following column by Peter Shaerf first appeared on the Shivas Irons Society website six years ago. It was inspired by the first European Tour win of Indian born golfer Arjun Atwal at the 2002 Caltex Singapore Masters.

With Atwal's latest victory on March 9, 2008 at the Malaysian Open it seems like the perfect time to visit this article again.

(March 10, 2002) When Arjun Atwal of India won the Caltex Singapore Masters a couple of weeks ago, the focus turned to a rising star from a country not known for golfing greatness. But Atwal’s win brought to mind one of the great pioneers of golf on a very different level – Sewsunker “Papwa” Sewgolum.

Sewgolum was an Indian caddie who left a major golf legacy. That his name is not well known and that his entry is absent from many leading golf encyclopaedias is a travesty that ought to be redressed.

Sewgolum grew up in South Africa and caddied at the prestigious all white Beachwood Country Club. Sewgolum was completely self taught, and in an age when we have become familiar with the cross handed putting grip ( see “Puttering Around for Success”), Sewgolum played EVERY shot with a reverse, left-hand low grip. Famed teacher Phil Ritson actually describes Sewgolum as the “Father of the cross-handed grip”, and Ben Wright, who recalled seeing Sewgolum at the Dutch Open ( a tournament Sewgolum won three times – in 1959, 1960 and 1964), observed that clearly this was a self taught player as noone would have or could have taught that particular swing!

How successful a player he might have been in South Africa will remain one of that country’s imponderables. Growing up in an apartheid environment where the rules required the whites and non–whites compete separately in individual sports, Sewgolum was a virtual outcast.

In the early 1960’s the rules were beginning to be challenged, and in 1963 Sewgolum competed and was runner-up in the South African Open at the Royal Durban Country Club.

In 1965, in arguably his greatest triumph, he won the Natal Open at the same Royal Durban Country Club, beating the likes of Gary Player (who that same year completed the “Grand Slam”) and Harold Henning. Apartheid was still strong at that time, and not only did the South African Broadcasting Corporation completely ignore the result, but Sewgolum was forced to accept his trophy standing out in the rain as it was passed to him through an open clubhouse window. Non-whites were not allowed to enter the clubhouse.

When black kids grew up in the 1960s and 70s, they were not taught to say: “Wow, that Gary Player is great!” but instead, “Damn, if Papwa Sewgolum had only been given the opportunity, he would have been greater than Player.”

Almost forty years later South Africa has undergone a political transformation that has not only removed apartheid but also has created a level of introspection that has allowed it to question its past activities.

With one voice they now say that the denial of talent through prejudice or racism won't be tolerated, and the skills of great sportsmen should be free to rise to the top.