The prodigy Golfer is yet to turn 19, but already the Indian teen sensation Aditi is making serious waves as a professional golfer. Aditi Ashok had a rough final day in tough scoring conditions and carded three-over 76, which saw her stumble to tied-sixth place at the RACV Gold Coast Challenge in Australia on Saturday.
The Teen Indian Golfer, who had a share of the lead on the first day and was third after day two, opened with three bogeys in a row and was never able to make ground on the overnight co-leader Thailand’s Prima Thammaraks (73).
Ashok shared the early lead of the Gold Coast Challenge after a round of three-under par 70 at Royal Pines Resort. She did have three birdies on fourth, 12th and 18th, but she also dropped shots on seventh, 11th and 13th holes. Vani Kapoor, the other Indian, who made the cut, shot 77 after rounds of 73 and 79 on first two days. She finished tied-38th. Amandeep Drall missed the cut.
Aditi had gone to Australia specifically for the Australian Women’s Open at Royal Adelaide in a fortnight as rookie of the year on the Ladies European Tour (LET), where she won twice in 2016. The first was in the Indian Open when she became the first player from her country to win the title as well as the first Indian to win on the LET. The other was in the Qatar Ladies Open. Throw in her feat of representing India at the Rio Olympic Games and it is clear she is a superstar in the making.
Aditi is the first and only Indian golfer who played the Asian Youth Games (2013), Youth Olympic Games (2014), Asian Games (2014) and Olympic Games (2016). Ashok first found a love for golf at the age of five when her parents would go to the Karnataka Golf Club near Bangalore airport for breakfast. Neither of her parents played golf but the game intrigued the then young girl. “I liked the look of it even at that age and decided to try it out,” she said.
Now that same shy little girl has almost reached superstar status in a country where cricket and hockey are the major sports. Now Ashok has two options to play golf. She is on the LET and the US LPGA and will juggle her schedule to allow herself to get enough tournaments on both, with the LET the main option at this stage. But she will remain based in Bangalore simply because of he LET status. But if the teenager can win the Australian Open it will give her exempt status in America for two years.
She will now play Oates Victoria Open next week, the opening event of the Ladies European Tour in 2017.
