Aditi Ashok is only 18 years old, but like any aspiring pro golfer, she knows the story of Ok Hee Ku and Se Ri Pak, whom in the 1980s and ’90s changed women’s golf by starting the South Korean wave.
Ashok may be that trailblazer for India. She was among the early leaders in the women’s tournament at the 2016 Rio Olympics and parlayed that experience into two victories in the fall on the Ladies European Tour, where she earned top rookie honours for 2016 and finished second in earnings with seven top-10 finishes.
Golf is an emerging sport somewhere behind cricket, soccer, field hockey and tennis in India, a nation of more than 1.3 billion people. But that may change soon, thanks to players like Ashok.
Anirban Lahiri is the only native of India with full status on the PGA Tour. Currently ranked 86th in the world, Lahiri has been ranked as high as 33rd. Arjun Atwal, currently ranked 969th, remains the only Indian winner on the PGA Tour, with his victory at the 2010 Wyndham Championship. Daniel Chopra, winner of two PGA Tour titles, grew up in India but is a Swedish citizen.
But no Indian woman has ever won an LPGA Tour event. Ashok, at No. 100, is the highest-ranked Indian woman since Simi Mehra, who played on the tour for several years beginning in 1997 and attained a career-high ranking of No. 17 in 1998. Only six Indian women are world-ranked, compared to 148 Indian men.
“Golf is definitely growing in India, but for the number of people we have, we still don’t have enough players, especially women players,” said Ashok, who is from Bangalore.
Ashok found herself in the spotlight when she returned home as an Olympian last summer. Weeks later, she won the Ladies European Tour event in India and added a second win the next week in Qatar.
“There was clearly a huge sense of pride from the local crowd when Aditi won the Hero Women’s Indian Open,” said Bethan Cutler, who handles communications for the Ladies European Tour.
Cutler called Ashok’s win a “game changer for female golfers” in India.
When asked what she thought it would take for her country to embrace golf, Ashok was pragmatic.
“It’s not just about golf, and it takes more than talent,” she said. “It’s the culture. It’s about sports in general, and once the mindset changes and girls start picking up sports, there will be more players in golf.”
The Professional Golf Tour of India offered 25 tournaments last year for male professionals, many of whom also competed on the Asian Tour and the European Tour. But Indian women had fewer opportunities, with 16 tournaments on their Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour.
With significantly fewer women playing the game in India, it took more than a decade for the small professional Women’s Golf Association of India to grow to 30 members.
Champika Sayal, secretary-general of the association, and Mehra helped establish a professional tour for Indian women.
Mehra organized a Skins Game in 2005, inviting three LPGA players to India to play an exhibition. A young Indian pro also competed in the event, alongside Mehra.
“I remember it being quite historic and emotional for everyone involved,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, one of the invited pros and now the LPGA’s chief tour operations officer.
Ashok embraced golf at age 5½ while having breakfast with her parents at a golf club in Bangalore. Their breakfast table overlooked the driving range, where players were hitting balls.
After breakfast, the family walked over to the practice green, where Ashok was handed a putter and some golf balls. Two hours later, she left in love with a new game.
She and her parents began taking lessons and playing golf together.
“We were very intrigued,” said her father, Pandit Gudlamani Ashok, who works in real estate.
Aditi played her first round of golf when she was just over 6. Her father thought she would be tired, but was surprised when she wanted to play more.
Her mother, Mash Ashok, said: “We played regularly as a family, but as soon as she was keen and started playing it competitively and started to set her goals, we couldn’t play as often because of her schedule. It was more about being her support than playing golf ourselves.”
India did not offer separate tournaments for girls when Ashok began playing, so from age 7 to 12, she competed with boys. She could not outhit the boys in distance, so she sharpened her short game as the equalizer.
Ashok captured attention in her homeland for the first time at 13 when she went head to head against Mehra in a 2011 professional event. She beat Mehra in a playoff.
“That was huge,” Ashok said. “Simi is a fierce competitor, but she encouraged me. When I won that event, I knew I wanted to be a professional.”
When Ashok won the Women’s Indian Open in November, she edged out LPGA veterans Brittany Lincicome and Belen Mozo. In Qatar, she won by three shots over European Solheim Cup player Caroline Hedwall.
“Aditi has a bright future, and India has an iconic young female golfer,” Sayal said. “Golf is finally coming of age for women in India.”
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