History created, Aditi has already put the win behind her, THINKING MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE. She has two more LET events left for the year — in Qatar and Dubai — and the LPGA Q School finals, and she is looking forward to them.
An ever-so-slightly-dazed look in her eyes, a small toss of the cap and the customary hug with her competitors were all that Aditi Ashok could manage after ending the third and final round of the Women’s Indian Open on Sunday.
The magnitude of successfully sinking a four foot putt would take its own sweet time to register on the 18-year-old who had just created golfing history at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.
Those four feet on the 18th hole of the famed Gary Player-designed course mapped the distance the marquee competition for women’s golf in India had covered since its inception in 2007, coming a full circle at the same venue where Irina Brar and Meghna Bal had finished tied-fourth in the first-ever international professional event in the country a decade ago.
Since then, several Indian women have been in the reckoning for winning the only Ladies European Tour-sanctioned professional golf event in the country before slipping at the end and then disappearing forever, the last one to do so being Vaishavi Sinha.
Placed against this context, Aditi’s achievement not only marks a giant step forward for women’s golf in India but also mirrors the growing comfort of Indian sportswomen in elite company.
“IT’S BEEN 10 YEARS FOR THE TOURNAMENT, this is the 10th Indian Open so that itself speaks about how long it’s lasted. It means a lot to win this. More girls have a chance to take golf as a career now than there were five years ago. That’s a good change and hopefully with my win there will be a lot more girls wanting to play golf,” Aditi said after the victory, calm and composed except for the smile that she always has regardless of the result.
This story is from the November 26, 2016 edition of Sportstar.
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This story is from the November 26, 2016 edition of Sportstar.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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