Iron women of India

Pranavi Urs

Tvesa Malik

Avani Prashanth

Most days, in some corner of the last two pages of newspapers, readers come across names with suffixes such as “cards under par”, “tied-fifth”, “shoots bogey-free round”, “misses cut” and so on.

In a country where golf, despite it’s considerable growth, still remains a niche sport, news on the sport attracts only the attention of the serious followers of the game. More so when the name is of an Indian woman, playing a tournament on a golf course in a difficult-to-pronounce French town, bears little significance.

This is precisely why there was a flutter among golf enthusiasts when Aditi Ashok achieved which no other golfer - man or woman - had managed to do previously - bring unprecedented focus on the sport.

The 24-year-old Bengaluru girl, playing her second Olympics in Tokyo 2020 after Rio 2016, made people across India, with little knowledge or interest in the game, glued to their television screens - rooting, cheering, praying and hoping that her name remained or moved up to the top-3 after every stroke Aditi played. It wasn’t to be but her fourth-place finish brought spotlight on the few women playing golf in the country.

While Aditi has been the flag-bearer - with two wins on the Ladies European Tour (LET) and currently the only Indian on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour - giving the best in the business a run for their money, the last 10 years have seen a surge in quality performances by several other girls domestically and internationally.

Picture this. With just five players on board to compete in five events, the Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI) began in 2007. The professional tour with prize money was conceptualised to promote and develop women’s golf besides providing a platform for girls to take up the sport as a career. Currently, the tour has 15-16 events spread across the country during an 8-month period.

And 15 years since the tour began, numerous firsts have been achieved.

A week ago, at the first-ever Mixed Pro Challenge - a two-day competition between 18 teams with two men and one lady pro golfer in each - Hitaashee Bakshi outshone a star-studded field comprising Olympian Udayan Mane, Asian Tour winner Khalin Joshi and several seasoned pros by carding the best score and helping her team (with Aadil Bedi and Ankur Chadha) finish first.

“Coming from an army family, our parents let us play various sports. But it was golf that stole our hearts 12 years ago. Mom stayed back in Delhi to support our golfing dreams while dad got posted to different places as a serviceman,” explained 17-year-old Hitashee along with her elder sister, 19-year-old Jahanvi Bakshi.

Known as the Bakshi sisters on tour, together they have seven WGAI wins since turning pros in November 2020. “The recognition and respect we receive, the life lessons learnt from constant travel and competing would not have been possible without golf. It has changed the lives of our family as a whole in a positive way,” added Jahanvi.

They are currently placed number two and three on the merit list behind another promising youngster from Mysuru, Pranavi Urs - who is back to winning ways with her fearless brand of play after an injury marred 2021.

Others climbing up the charts and making India’s presence felt include Delhi’s Tvesa Malik, who finished inside top-20 in the LET last season, Diksha Dagar (also from Delhi), with her maiden Olympic appearance in Tokyo apart from winning the South African Women’s Open (LET event) in 2019, and Bengaluru’s latest golfing sensation, Avani Prashanth, who became the first golfer from India to compete at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in Georgia recently.

The 15-year-old Avani has also recorded wins on the WGAI as an amateur, a feat achieved by Hyderabad’s Sneha Singh, Haryana’s Khushi Hooda, Kolkata’s Smriti Bhargav and Pranavi in the past two years.

From Gaurika Bishnoi, Seher Atwal, Ridhima Dilawari to Neha Tripathi (holds the record for the lowest score, 10-under par) and Amandeep Drall, Gursimar Badwal, Saaniya Sharma to the never write me off Sharmila Nicollet, make up the assortment of players. With constant growth in the quality of golf among women quite evident, the number of young girls picking up golf clubs, however, still remains snail-paced. Though players have benefited from better coaching facilities and access to good equipment, for the majority of general masses the sport largely remains out of bounds.

It’s not to make comparisons but taking a cue from other Asian countries would go a long way in lifting the profile of the women’s game. The women’s pro tours in Thailand and China, for example, with their journeys kicking off around the same time as the WGAI, have seen exponential growth with more than 150 and 600 registered female golfers respectively competing in events with world ranking points, while it has increased to around 50 from five in 2007 in India.

“There is a misconception that golf is a rich-man’s sport,” feels Vani Kapoor, a multiple winner on the pro tour. “This notion has to change. I was the only girl at my golf club when I began playing 18 years ago but now there are more girls signing up for junior programmes than boys each year.

“Numerous sponsors support players from a young age - even during their lean patch - in other countries. It makes a huge difference because any athlete dreaming of pursuing sport seriously requires financial support. We lack that here. We aren’t a sporting nation yet,” said Vani who was the first to compete on the Australian tour.

The fact that golf continues to predominantly be an urban sport is restricting the quantity from swelling, observes Smriti Mehra, the first woman golfer from India to play on the LPGA tour in 1997.

“Unless the sport spreads to tier-1, 2 cities and towns and if there is no access to affordable play for the middle-class or lower-middle class, we will continue to be perceived as an exclusive club,” said Smriti who along with Satish Tandon, Champika Sayal and VS Singh among others were instrumental in the formation of WGAI.

“The potential is abundant. The foundation was laid 15-16 years ago and now it’s up to the various golf associations in the country to build on individual success stories and not only support players but female coaches, officials, referees and caddies to truly empower women through golf.”

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