Ace Bangladesh golfer Siddikur Rahman wants to take motivation from playing in front of the home crowd and is looking forward to overcoming his recent run of poor form in order to win his first ever Asian Tour title when the Bashundhara Bangladesh Open gets underway today.
Considered the country’s golf icon, the two-time Asian Tour winner is confident ahead of today’s tee-off and was full of praise with regards to the condition of the Kurmitola Golf Course.
“I am really very excited to come back home and play on my home course again. The weather is perfect and I think that’s why the course is in a better condition, compared to last year. I was surprised to see how good the course conditions were when I played the pro-am tournament [yesterday] morning. The fairways, the greens and the way they set up the golf course is perfect I must say,” Siddikur was quoted as saying in the Asian Tour website yesterday.
He continued, “It’s always an advantage playing at home and in front of your home crowd. It’s going to be a motivation for me to do well. This is the second time that we have an Asian Tour event here and I hope we can continue to put Bangladesh on the world map through the staging of this event.”
Siddikur admitted he took too much pressure upon himself in the last edition and expressed his hope of staying calm this time around.
“There’s actually a lot of pressure on me as I am playing on home soil this week but I guess it all depends on how much I want to take. Honestly, I think I gave myself too much pressure last year. I was just trying to win the tournament. I think that mindset is wrong,” he said before adding, “I will try to stay relaxed this time. I just want to enjoy my game. I enjoy the home crowd and I feel motivated to see them support me. There will definitely be a lot of expectations on me but I will take it positively.
“I want to prove my worth this week. I feel very confident and hopeful. I want to believe that I can become the first Bangladeshi to win on home soil. There are a lot of good players here this week. It’s hard to say who will win. It’s going to be a good challenge this week.”