Stretch your limits: Yoga course to enhance your golf skills

Alok Khanna, a Dubai-based businessman and member of The Montgomerie golf club, has launched the Yoga-for-Golf programme to help golfers reduce their handicap and play with enhanced flexibility of the body and mind.

Khanna, 36, started playing golf last year but had to contend with a lower back pain which had been nagging him for the past 12 years. His wife introduced him to her yoga instructor Manish Pole, who is a disciple of yoga guru Bharat Thakur.

Pole, who has taught yoga to Indian golfer Jyoti Randhawa, studied Khanna's swing and suggested some yoga exercises and pranayama (breathing exercises).

From this encounter flourished the idea of Yoga-for-Golf, a yoga-based sports fitness regimen designed by Thakur.

Yoga-for-Golf conducted free trial sessions on Monday night at The Montgomerie.

"I'm hoping to work mentally," said Rebecca Yeoman, 55, the Lady's Club captain. "If I can learn how to relax my mind and move on to the next shot after a bad one, I'll be able to play better and enjoy the game more."

For an hour, the participants practised stretching with a golf club, breathing and visualising a shot through meditation. "The fluidity in swing comes from relaxation of the muscles," said Pole, the instruction director of the programme.

Twelve sessions cost between Dh750 and Dh950.