Golfer Aditi’s 4th place finish at the Olympics may have given Indian fans a new sport to follow more keenly than ever before
Aditi Ashok
It is not often that a president or the prime minister tweets for a player who finishes fourth. Yet they did when Aditi Ashok missed the medal by a whisker at the Tokyo Olympics.
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Ever since I started following golf, it has not been a common man’s game. It is not common stream. It also has an unwanted tag of being the rich man’s sport and has had to grapple with the mindset of people, who have often found it difficult to understand.
It is also not common for a TV channel to show a full round of golf and that’s what it did when World No. 200 Aditi battled the likes of World No. 1 Nelly Korda and many others.
Despite two days of excellent play on first two days, when she was in the Top-3, Aditi did not figure in scheme of medal-seekers. And then after the third day, the whole of India suddenly woke up to the possibility of a medal.
Of birdies and bogeys
That Saturday in the final round, the lank and somewhat frail-looking girl from Bangalore, had the entire nation enthralled with a sport that had terms like par, birdies, bogeys and roughs, fairways, greens and aprons. These terms are alien to India, but Aditi has taken a step to get Indians know more about it.
Yet, with a medal on the line, the entire populace was willing to overlook its unfamiliarity with the sport to root for a girl ranked World No. 200 battle against the World No. 1 and others for a place on the podium. Struck by COVID-19 in May-June, Aditi, who has been playing on the world’s strongest golf tour since the beginning of 2017 but still garnered only a limited number of fans, essentially golf lovers, missed a lot of events in those months.That saw her ranking fall, but the grit and talent was there for all to see.
Mum, the caddie
She had a disarming smile to go with it and her mother, Maheshwari, the one of the two driving forces—the other being her dad, Ashok—was serving as the caddie for the week. What better way to bond with a parent than combining to seek an Olympic Games medal.
Those compelling stories had a lot of Indians all over the world coming together on social media platforms and then, there were others willing to sacrifice their morning sleep on a weekend to watch this fine young lady.
High interest
Commentators not familiar with the game or its terminologies and demands were searching for words, even as Aditi found a way to battle with the world stars.
Strokes were called points which roughly translates to calling centuries by Virat Kohli as goals. Yet, the interest soared as the finish came closer. In the end, Aditi fell short of a medal by one shot—finishes in golf are rarely by massive margins. Even three shots is big.
She finished fourth as the current World No. 1 Nelly Korda, daughter of tennis Grand Slam winner, Petr Korda, took gold and Japan’s own Mone Inami, World No, 28 was second. Former World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who had scaled the peak ranking when she was just 17 years and nine months old, won bronze.
Yes, Aditi fell short by one, just as Milkha Singh did; just as PT Usha did; or Abhinav Bindra did (in 2016 after winning gold in 2008); or the women’s hockey team did this time. Many others too fell at the doorstep of a podium. But this time around, the nation melted like never before.
The final round of the Olympic women’s golf was probably the most watched round in the history of Indian and probably Asian golf and maybe much farther.
Millions were glued to their TV sets following the fortunes of Aditi, who after three days was lying second and in line for an unprecedented medal at Olympic golf.
Aditi, 23, who represented India at the Rio Olympics, had fraternity looking in awe after two days of great golf in 2016.
But by the end she finished T-41. While golf fans still recall that performance, others forgot her and her performances on the LPGA, the world’s toughest Tour, often stayed in the column, “In brief.”
Aditi was tied second after the third day and when news filtered in about a possible storm and cancellation of the final round, a medal-starved India started looking at weather charts in and around Tokyo.
Online talking point
One group on the platform, ‘Twitter Spaces’ had more than 140 people at one time discussing Indian golf.
Participants included sportspersons from other sports like former Olympians Aparna Popat, a former World Junior silver medallist in badminton, table tennis star, Neha Aggarwal and professional golfer S Chikkarangappa, who last week was Lahiri’s caddie in Tokyo. They were joined by professional journalists and others, who love golf and know about Aditi’s talent.
Even after she ended fourth, Twitter was agog with messages from the likes of Olympians like Abhinav Bindra, Mahesh Bhupathi and many others, who themselves know the pain of finishing fourth.
In recent years, golf has had more exposure than in the past and the exploits of Jeev Milkha Singh, Anirban Lahiri, Shubhankar Sharma, Aditi Ashok, Tvesa Malik and
Diksha Dagar have found space in the print media, but rarely on TV channels, whose inclination to cricket is
well-documented.
A new era
Yet, on the first Saturday of August 2021, Aditi may have given the Indian sports fan a new sport to follow more keenly than ever before. She may well have ushered in a new era for Indian women’s golf, Indian women’s sport and maybe even Indian golf and sport.
Thank you, Aditi.
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