Zafar Iqbal: From Olympic Hockey Gold to Golf at 70

Olympic gold medalist hockey player Zafar Iqbal, now 70, has shifted his competitive focus to golf, where he has achieved three hole-in-ones and continues winning pro-am events despite a double-digit handicap. Iqbal's most cherished hockey memory is India's 4-3 victory over Spain in the 1980 Moscow Olympics final, a game he recalls as nearly lost in the final minutes. His saddest moment was India's 7-1 defeat to Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games final, where he scored India's lone goal. His generation played on grass at home and astro-turf abroad, with India's first artificial pitch laid in 1982. In Patiala, players once used a makeshift surface of cow dung cake mixed with water to simulate astro-turf. Iqbal balanced civil engineering studies with hockey, mentored by Zillur Rehman Khan and coached by Jagan Nath.