Unbeatable Japanese JAJAUMA golf team buckles up for next tournament; changing its image to attract more players

NEW DELHI: Jajauma golf team – the undisputed champions of the ETOKAI 12 Animal Golf Tournament – one of its kind Japanese amateur golf tournament played every year by Japanese in India since 2014, are worried about maintaining their winning spree next year and beyond.

The contesting golf teams in this tournament are carved out of Japanese executives, engineers, and entrepreneurs who come to India on companies’ assignments and love to play amateur golf.

Champions for the last three consecutive terms in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Jajauma also won this tournament in 2014 tournament – the very first year of its inception. It, however, remained runners up in 2016 and failed to make their presence in 2015 only.

But next year seems not so easy for Jajauma as many of its good players have relocated either to Japan or to other countries for work and new ones are not joining for a very funny reason.

“Many of our good players relocated either to Japan or other places as every 4-5 years Japanese professionals are shifted from India. Ironically, new professionals who come to India are not joining us because of our image of being a very serious team. Our image among our community is that we almost never drink, do not party and practice golf every day,” says Takahiko Hashimoto (54), the senior-most player of Jajauma.

Playing golf for the last 30 years, Takahiko Hashimoto is with Maruti Suzuki (India) as Director (Marketing & Sales). He came to India in May 2012 and has played all six tournaments since 2014.

Shinki Yamada (53), another Jajauma golfer who is the Managing Director, Shiroki Technico India says, “We need minimum 24 players on the final day of tournament and for this we should have around 35-40 players in the team as a buffer as many go to business trips or for other professional or family commitments. This year we had only 36 players and the same number last year.  Therefore recently, we called a steering committee meeting and discussed how to attract new players into the team”.

Yamada said it was decided in the meeting that Jajauma would change its image of being a serious team. He has been playing golf for over 30 years.

“We have now started holding frequent get-together, parties each month, to show that we are not serious but fun-loving golfers too, please come and join us,” says  Yuji Uchida (42), the Jajauma captain. He works as Project Management Manager with Hitachi Systems Micro Clinics and has been playing for over 20 years.

Despite an unbeatable record of winning the ETOKAI 12 Animal Golf Tournament four times, Jajauma’s performance has been showing a downward trend.

In the year 2014, the team’s score was 5-0; which means it won all five matches and lost none. In the year 2017 also the team score was 5-0. However, the score started to register downward trend and the team won the tournament with a 4-1 score in 2018, and it came down further this year to 3-2.

Also, the total points earned by Jajauma in the year 2017 were at 213 but it went down to 183 and to 152 points in the following years 2018 and 2019 respectively.

What is the core strength of Jajauma that makes it champion?

As Takahiko Hashimoto puts it, “The majority of our 24 players, are very good players, and this makes all the difference when compared to other competing teams.  We have been a very strong team, especially in the years 2017 and 2018.  During all these years we were very confident of our wins but not in 2019 as many players left.”

Regular practice by the Jajauma team who take each tournament very seriously is also one of the keys reasons for it becoming champions.

However, they also feel that luck too plays its role as the selection of team members in the ETOKAI 12 Animal Golf Tournament is made ONLY on the basis of the zodiac sign of the Japanese national.

Jajauma is the only team with team golf kit:

For the first time during the 2019 tournament, the Jajauma team introduced TEAM GOLF KIT, which is different from the golf kits all the members carry with them individually.

“Besides our team logo with animal signs of horse and snake, this red-colored kit also has three stars. Each star represents our victory in 2017, 2018 and 2019. We have kept a space vacant for more stars which motivate us to win tournaments in the coming years too. All other teams Ushitora, Drabi, Yoen, Toriumi, and Inochu have their uniforms and caps but not the bag of this kind,” says Takahiko Hashimoto.

The Selection criteria:

ETOKAI 12 Animal Golf Tournament is played throughout the year in phases by six participating teams with each having 24 players.

The team members are selected by the zodiac sign they carry depending upon the year of their birth as per Japanese customs.

The word ANIMAL is associated with the tournament basis the Japanese zodiac system that is categorized on the basis of 12 animals.

Jaja means snake and Uma represents horse as per Japanese astronomical system.

So those were born in the year 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966, 1954, 1942, 1930, 1918, 1906 belong to Jaja (snake) category, and others in the year 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965, 1953, 1941, 1929, 1917 are identified as Uma (hoarse).

“Whenever Japanese come to India we ask them whether they play golf. If yes, then we ask which zodiac animals they belong to, and accordingly, we make them join the team their zodiac signs belong to,” says Yuji Uchiyama (53). Chairman of the Jajauma team, he works as General Manager, Sanden Vikas (India). He came to India last year and the former captain introduced him to the team. He played in 2018 and 2019 tournaments.