He needed RM8,000 to compete with the outside world, and was worried sick.

Then, the jockey of a racehorse named “Not to Worry” teed things up perfectly for him.

Nazamuddin went for broke and placed his RM800 on “Not to Worry” in a race at the Perak Turf Club.

The horse won, and he pocketed nearly RM8,000. He did not have to worry anymore and was on his way to the 1978 Asian circuit.

In the years that followed, he played in many major meets including four World Cups. Today, at age 67, he teaches golf.

Nazamuddin recalled his golf experiences in an interview in conjunction with the Dec 9 Sports Flame event, a celebration of Malaysian sporting greats from the 60s, 70s and early 80s.

The event, supported by FMT, is about giving back for the years of joy four former sports journalists – George Das, R Velu, Lazarus Rokk and Fauzi Omar – had writing about the icons.

For Nazamuddin, turning pro after five years as a top amateur was the easy part. Making a life out of golf in the early years was hard.

As a rookie he showed great promise, but he was not satisfied with his game.

Nazamuddin was playing only against his fellow country mates, and wanted to compete at a higher level to improve himself.

He set his sights on the Asian circuit to play with the best Asian, European, American and Australian players under different climatic conditions in 10 different countries.

The young man needed to find the money to embark on this journey, “but to my dismay, nobody and no corporation was willing to sponsor local golfers.”

“Not to Worry” gallops to the rescue

Dejected and disappointed, Nazamuddin returned home to Ipoh, but found some hope when racing jockey Chris Gwilliam told him “Not to Worry” could ease his worries.

GWilliam told him to put all his money on his horse which he was going to ride that Sunday at the Perak races.

Nazamuddin memorably said in the book, Sports Flame: Stories Never Told Before: “Imagine that. And that too on a horse named ‘Not to Worry’.

“It was as if there was a message of reassurance for me, a fledgling golfer who just turned pro, and given my dire straits, worried if I would succeed.

“I am not ashamed to say I went for broke and placed the RM800 on ‘Not To Worry’.”

Nazamuddin said it was a one chance in a million: if he won, the Asian circuit beckoned; if he lost, he would be broke; and his pro career would have ended even before it could take off.

As it turned out, the horse won, and the close to RM8,000 he had gained was more than enough to sustain him for six tournaments in the Asian circuit, round trip air ticket, accommodation, caddie fees and food.

He did not win any money on the tour but the experience he attained playing with the likes of Graham Marsh (Australia), Payne Stewart (USA), Lu Liang Huan (Taiwan), Hideyo Sugimoto (Japan) and many others put him in good stead.

More things about Nazamuddin

The beginnings: As an 11-year-old schoolboy, Nazamuddin found a broken 8-iron Walter Hagen club in a bush at the Perak Turf Club course.

He restored it with a makeshift shaft made from a discarded iron bar and wrapped a cut-up bicycle tube for the grip.

It was his first club but he just hit around with not much interest. Football was his rage, and he was the striker in the Perak under-16 team that won the national schools championships in 1972.

Nazamuddin picked up golf as a 16-year-old when his elder brother Zainal Abidin was the resident pro of the Royal Perak Golf Club.

He was tasked by Zainal to take care of the driving range where he often had a good laugh watching the club members hitting the ball in all directions.

“That was when I told myself I could do better than them, and I hit 600-700 balls daily,” he said. “That was the start of my golf journey.”

Within six months, he was in the Malaysia team for the Putra Cup in Manila, where he finished seventh in the individual category, and fourth in the team event along with Tan Yee Khan, K Batumalai and Hassan Ali.

Illustrious family: Ipoh’s Yusof brothers Zainal, Khairudin, Sahabuddin and Nazamuddin were a mainstay of Malaysian golf from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning numerous titles.

Zainal was the first among them to go professional in 1969, and represented the nation in the World Cup of Golf five times as well as the Dunhill Cup at St Andrew’s in Scotland.

He was also one of the founders of the Malaysian PGA and served as the association’s president for two years.

Boss-turned-caddie: At the 1976 Eisenhower Trophy in Portugal, Nazamuddin sputtered and stuttered in the first round.

To find out why he was playing poorly, then Malaysian PGA president and high court judge, Abdul Hamid Omar, became his caddie in the second round.

Nazamuddin said he continued to play badly and Hamid couldn’t believe it.

To make matters worse, his brother Sahabuddin and their teammates Eshak Bluah and Batumalai weren’t doing well either.

After nine holes, Hamid strode grim-faced down the fairway, with Nazamuddin’s original caddie taking over.

“I still can’t get over the day when a man of high position was my caddie,” Nazamuddin said in reference to Hamid, who was the Lord President of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Malaysia from 1988-1994.

Generous brothers: When Dunlop Malaysia turned Nazamuddin down by saying that they did not sponsor local pros, only foreigners, he was stuck.

Things changed when popular golf figure Ramlan Harun introduced him to the Ahmad brothers, Qadeer and Hamid, who ran a sports shop “Car & Company” which held the Mizuno Golf agency.

Nazamuddin said the brothers signed him on with no questions asked. “From then on I did not have a problem about getting golf equipment for 15 years.”

The sponsorship ended when he stopped playing tournaments. “Without them I won’t be what I am.”

Major accolades: The biggest pro title he won was the 1986 Singapore PGA. In total he captured 19 professional titles, of which six were at Benson and Hedges Classic championships over six years.

Biggest disappointment: After helping Malaysia qualify for the Dunhill Cup final in St Andrews in 1991, he was unceremoniously dropped from the three-man team to Scotland.

“It was the most disappointing moment in my career, and after that my game started to slide and I quit my playing career in 1993,” Nazamuddin said.

After 17 years as a playing professional, he turned to teaching and golf course management.