Arjun Atwal is Cleared
Courtesy: India Times
Remember Arjun Atwal? He's the Indian golfer who showed his talent for the game in 2006 on the pga tour. In fact, he was the first Indian golfer to ever qualify for the PGA Tour even though he'd been a regular on the European PGA Tour.
But that hard-earned success came at a cost last March when Atwal was involved in a horrific late-night car accident that left one driver dead.
Atwal was investigated by police after the accident outside Orlando. They were considering various charges, the least of which would have been "engaging in a street race".
It's taken a full year to complete the investigation and the news for the Indian player is good: he has been cleared.
With that weight off his shoulders, Atwal is back. The aftermath of the accident along with a bad back kept him off the PGA Tour last season; consequently, he lost his playing privileges and spent 2007 on the Nationwide.
But he has the skills to play at the top level and I wouldn't be surprised to see him back on the PGA Tour for next season.
Finally the pieces are falling back together for Arjun Atwal. He had maintained throughout that he had not engaged in a street race that resulted in the other car flipping over and resulting in the death of the driver. After a few good shows on the PGA Tour a couple of seasons back, a chronic back problem resulted in his game falling apart and he had a horrid 2007 on the Nationwide tour.
But this year he looks set to change things around. In his first tournament of the year he narrowly missed out on the title and ended up second in the field. After that he has pretty much been participating in the big ticket events in India in events co sanctioned by the European Tour and although he did not set the courses on fire he was putting up a consistent show. Now he is back in the big league with his second Malaysian Open title after a gap of five years. He is too good a player to be left languishing on the Nationwide tour for long and I wont be surprised if he manages to regain his PGA Tour card. He is definitely a player reborn.