Vanpe Sajamark or Jay, 34, is an up-and-coming young blood in the sports business. He’s part of the new generation of sports news anchors on Channel 7, a host and producer of the golf program T-Off on UBC, a co-founder and teacher at the Bangkok Cleveland Golf School and one of the most sought after sport commentators and MCs. With his solemnly polite look and perfect English and Thai language skills, he opts for the intellectual side of sports rather than the competitive.

My philosophy is if you don’t try, then you don’t know. This is how I was brought up. So when I was back, less than a month, from the States and Khun Suppaporn Mapuangpong asked me to join commentating a NFL match, I said, “OK, let’s try.”

I learn by doing but Khun Suppaporn also coached me along while we were commentating. That day, I was very excited and nervous. I probably said three sentences in three hours. After doing it for a while, I learned when you can talk, what you can say, and how you can say it.

You may not always like what you try, but there’s no harm in trying. Give it a shot and if you don’t like it, then step back. But if you like it, then pursue it.

There’s a difference between a touring pro golfer and a teaching pro golfer. A touring pro has the knowledge and the ability to win. A teaching pro has the knowledge, he can explain to other people how to do it, but he may not necessarily have the ability to do it himself. I now have the knowledge to be a teaching pro, but I can’t do all the things a touring pro can.

Not that this is an unsatisfactory life to lead, but by that time I graduated, I had to join the real world. I know that I have to work and you can’t have a career and be a professional touring golfer at the same time.

If my family had enough money so that I could just buzz around for a few years, then I would probably have practiced golf to try to go on tour.

Golf is a gentleman’s sport and it has integrity. It doesn’t have a referee with a whistle seeing if you are doing anything wrong.

Every golfer pretty much governs himself. You know the rules, you obey the rules and you penalize yourself.

If I came back and pood Thai mai koi chud, people probably wouldn’t mind it so much because I’ve been away so long and I left when I was young. For being in the States for 13 years with just one visit to Thailand and one Thai friend, I still speak Thai quite clearly.

I think to be able to speak Thai clearly is something you should be able to do as a Thai person. I don’t understand why somebody would go for a master’s degree and come back and pood mai chud.

Petprauma is what kept my Thai intact. My dad handed me a copy of Phraimahakarn Part I and I started reading that before I went to the States. While I was in the States, my dad had somebody mail me every issue. So I had a chance to continually read Thai.

If I don’t start something, that’s OK. But if I do decide to start, I truly prefer to finish it.

I get to learn about life more so than if I wasn’t in the spotlight. I get to meet more people doing what I do. At the beginning of the year, a few of the world class golfers came and I MCed the show.

You see good things and you see bad things. Some people you meet and you realize that you like them better when you didn’t know them. Some people you like more when you get to know them.

In ten years, I will still try new things, but golf will always be part of my life, I’m sure.