Aditi Ashok won the first-ever medal for Indian women’s golf in the 19th Asian Games at Hangzhou, but what looked like a sure-shot gold at the start of the day, turned into a silver nobody expected, thanks to the mind-numbing vagaries of the sport.
How else can one explain a round of 77 with just one birdie, less than 24 hours after a stunning nine-birdie, one-eagle, career-low 61? How could Ashok not drop a single long putt after making everything from the next postcode and beyond on Saturday? How could her arrow-like tee shots desert her to the extent that she missed eight fairways during the round?
The five-over par 77 was her worst round of the year (76s at the US Open and AIG Women’s British Open – both majors). Apart from the age-old, and rather illogical, adage of the game – it’s almost impossible to follow one low round with another – it was all more intriguing than a whole season of ‘X Files’.
Despite the Sunday 77, Ashok had done enough good work earlier in the week to collect India’s 39th medal in Hangzhou with a four-day tally of 17-under par. Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol made the most of her misfortune and shot a four-under par 68 to claim the gold medal at -19 total.
India also lost the chance of winning a team medal as both Pranavi Urs (75) and Avani Prashanth (76) were also over-par. They finished at 22-under par and in fourth place, just two shots behind China at bronze medal position with Thailand collecting the team golf at 34-under par.
The killer blow for Ashok came on the par-3 16th hole, when leading by one shot over Yubol, she pulled her hybrid ever so slightly to roll into the water hazard on the left. The ensuing double bogey wiped her seven-shot lead at the start of the day and put her one behind. Yubol then tightened the screws on the par-5 17th, where she made a birdie against Ashok’s par.
In some ways, the silver was more distressing for Ashok than the fourth place at Tokyo Olympics. She played terrific golf until the end at Kasumigaseki against the world’s best. This certainly wasn’t the way she wanted to finish the tournament.
“Obviously, it wasn’t a good day and I played badly. There’s no way to talk around it,” said the 25-year-old from Bengaluru. “But I guess if I see my scores for the four days, it’s actually pretty good. I probably would have taken a 17-under at the start of the week.
“It’s just that when you should fight over on the last day, it doesn’t feel as good. It was a totally different day compared to the other three. I missed a lot of fairways, which is one of my strengths. I usually miss maybe one or two fairways in a round, but today, I missed at least eight fairways. I was never in position to be able to hit it close, and therefore, couldn’t really make any birdies.”
Ashok said the Asian Games silver, for the time being, wasn’t enough to soothe the pain of missing on an Olympic bronze.
“A second is an improvement from fourth, but just looking at this tournament individually, I mean, I could have done way better. Coming from fourth at the Olympics to a medal here is definitely a positive. Probably, the silver will start looking a lot better after a couple of weeks,” added the world No47.
In men’s golf, Anirban Lahiri’s closing 68 was the best round of the four in contention. He finished tied 12th at 14-under par. Khalin Joshi (73) was tied 27th at seven-under par, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia was 30th at six-under, while Shubhankar Sharma was 32nd at two-under 74.
Hong Kong’s 22-year-old Taichi Kho, who turned professional last year and has already won on the Asian Tour this year, once again proved his massive talent, winning the men’s gold ahead of South Korea’s PGA Tour superstars Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim. Kho won by one shot at 27-under par, while Korea took the team title.
