India’s Olympic darling Aditi Ashok turned her success in Rio de Janeiro into a fairy-tale like breakthrough Sunday in her homeland.
Ashok, 18, won the Hero Women’s Indian Open, becoming the first player from India to win a Ladies European Tour event. The fact that she did it in her homeland made the feat all that more spectacular.
“I’ve had a lot of good finishes at the Indian Open and to finally get the job done feels good, especially as an Indian player in front of my home crowd,” Ashok said. “It means a lot to win this.”
Ashok held off two-time major championship winner Brittany Lincicome and LPGA veteran Belen Mozo to claim the title at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon.
“She’s a great player,” Mozo said. “When you compete with players this young, they are fearless, they don’t feel anything in their veins and they just go for it.”
Ashok, the 18-year-old from Bangalore, India, first captured the golf world’s imagination when she took a share of the second-round lead in the Olympics. She’s a pioneer who headed to the Olympics hoping to carve a new path into the game for young girls in India, where the sport isn’t very popular. When Ashok first took up golf as a 5-year-old, there were just three golf courses in Bangalore, a city of eight million people.
When Ashok turned pro as a 17-year-old last year, she didn’t get a lot of attention in the bigger sports picture in India, where cricket rules. She didn’t get a whole lot more even after she went on to win LET Q-School.
“When I was trying to make it into the Olympics, a lot of people in India, outside people who followed golf, didn’t know what I was doing,” Ashok told GolfChannel.com this summer. “Once I made the Olympic team, it wasn’t just golfers who knew. Everyone knows about it. It’s really huge, having so many people follow me. I’m sure it will help the sport in India.”
Ashok finished tied for 41st at the Olympics, but that’s not what her homeland will remember about her appearance in the first Olympic women’s golf competition in 116 years. They will remember her grabbing a share of the second round lead with Ariya Jutanugarn. Ashok has continued to build on that success. She had four consecutive top 10s on the LET before winning in India. She also advanced through the first stage of LPGA Q-School this summer and then through the second stage last month. She earned a spot in next month’s final stage as she bids to play the American-based tour next year.
Ashok won Sunday in India with a closing birdie. Tied for the lead with Lincicome and Mozo going to the last hole, Ashok holed a 4-foot putt to shoot even-par 72, finishing 3-under overall. Lincicome closed with a 69 and Mozo with a 71.
Ashok said she felt like she got lucky at the last, catching a flier with her approach that hit a bank at the back of the green and rolled back to the flagstick, but Mozo was impressed that Ashok took advantage, making the nervy putt to make history for her homeland.
“She had to make a good putt to win and she did,” Mozo said. “I’m proud and actually happy for India and the title sponsor that an Indian girl won. I’m very happy for her and congratulate her. We’ll see her more in the future, that’s for sure.”