Rohit Brijnath

Writer at The Straits Times

Writer @Stcom

Featured in: Favicon

straitstimes.com (+1) Favicon

espn.com

livemint.com (+1) Favicon

thehindu.com (+1) Favicon

indiatoday.in Favicon

thestar.com.my Favicon

asiaone.com Favicon

asianews.network Favicon

espn.in

espn.co.uk + 1 more

Articles

‘Rory, Rory, Rory’: On Sunday at the Masters a hero rises in the dusk

1 week ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

“Rory, Rory, Rory.” It’s past 6pm at the 18th hole at the Masters on April 13 and the scoreboard is being updated. A bellow emerges. It shows Rory McIlroy at 12-under. He’s just birdied the 17th hole and has a one-shot lead over Justin Rose. A ripple of expectation stirs the crowd. The 18th green is ringed by thousands of people and many of us can’t even see the green but no one will leave. Emotion and history have tied us to this place.
In an elegant arena, an electric McIlroy hunts his first Masters title

1 week ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

AUGUSTA – In the shadow of a mighty oak tree on April 12, in the kind light of a Saturday afternoon, the week’s best golfers began their chase for sporting immortality. Along the way they might have noticed that beside the greens at the Masters is often a small, roped-away space. Reserved for “movie crew” it says. It makes sense, for the unscripted drama of sport makes for the finest epics.
Hiroshi Tai misses the Masters cut but gains a Major education

1 week ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

AUGUSTA – At the par-three 16th hole named Redbud, the pines looming like lanky spectators, his iron shot floated in the air and settled gently near the pin. Just 11 feet away. Surely, now, a birdie. Surely, after hours of his putter misbehaving, something would fall. Surely, a round of tiny errors would be redeemed late in the day. The Masters promises nothing. The putt missed. Singapore’s Hiroshi Tai bent over in disbelief and frustration. “I had a couple of good looks at birdie,” he said later.
Singapore golfer Hiroshi Tai left grinning after sparkling Masters debut

1 week ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

AUGUSTA – Everything you wanted to know about Hiroshi Tai’s first day as a Masters golfer was written on his face later. He was grinning. Just couldn’t stop. It was a grin of relief, delight, pride. It was a grin he deserved after a first round in his inaugural Masters which had been long, hot, testing but sparkling. “I did a good job mentally,” he modestly told The Straits Times, but the scoreboard told a more persuasive tale. (A) for Amateur, it noted beside the Singaporean’s name.
The best way to watch sport? Without a phone, says the Masters

2 weeks ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

– Rock ’n’ roll is loud, wild, its beat heavy, and its philosophy suggests rules are meant to be broken. Golf’s Masters is its polite antithesis, a place formal, quiet, rule-bound, where the instruments at best speak a precise, clicking music. But both have something intriguing in common. They don’t always care for phones. In Manila in 2024, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, a gentle rocker if ever there was one, beseeches the crowd. For a single song, he says, put your raised phones away.
The Masters Par Three Contest is cute, now the serious stuff starts

2 weeks ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

AUGUSTA – “Surreal,” says a grinning Jacky Tai to the camera. It’s early on April 9, Wednesday, the last practice day, and swollen crowds are milling about at the Masters as the sun tries to ward off the gentle chill. The first fairway slopes and rises down into the distance and Charles Schwartzel, the 2011 champion, has just struck a three-wood as crisp as the morning. “Did you see the ball flight?” a spectating gent wonders to his friend in admiration. .
Golf’s Masters is understated, pretty, historic... and cool

2 weeks ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

Augusta, UNITED STATES - Cool, said the Singaporean the other day in Georgia. Cool experience, he explained. One of the coolest places on earth, he insisted. Pretty cool to be doing a press conference in this land of giants, he declared. To be precise, during his interview, he used a variation of the word “cool” only 10 times. So, yes, we get it, Hiroshi Tai is enamoured by the Masters. It’s OK, he’s in fine company.
‘There’s so much aura’, three-time champion Nick Faldo explains the Masters

2 weeks ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

Are the greens as fast as legend insists? “Faster,” says the 67-year-old man reverentially as he sits up in the sky on the 27th floor of Shaw Centre. We’re talking the Masters, which starts this week, whose serenity is a beautiful ruse. The pines soar, stone bridges cross still water, the azaleas bloom. But danger lurks and this man at lunch, his meaty, gifted hands wrapped around a wine glass, has long studied its mysteries as player and commentator.
Singaporean golfer Hiroshi Tai’s long journey to the Masters

2 weeks ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

In the early years of this century, a young boy gets special permission to use the range at the Singapore Island Country Club. He’s five years old, but his immediate love of golf is quickly advertised in his persistence. He won’t leave the range, just hitting bucket after bucket of balls till a blister appears and his finger bleeds. That boy is now two days away from his Masters debut.
The singular wonder of the movie hall

2 weeks ago | straitstimes.com | Rohit Brijnath

First times, who forgets? First awkward dates, first time you sit astride a growling motorcycle, first job interview with an over-tight tie, first sour sip of dad’s beer. And to this list add, the first meeting with an actor. Like that fellow I collided with as a boy, behind a busy market, his face often creased into a smirk, pork-pie hat cockily perched on his head, 30 feet tall and shouting at someone.