Report by Anand Datla
August 28, 2015: India’s junior golfers, ranked second on the IGU Order of Merit, Aditi Ashok along with teammate Karandeep Kochar finished 14th at the Asia-Pacific Junior Golf Championship. Top ranked Shubham Narain and Ridhima Dilawari finished the week in 15th place. The Korean team, dominant all week, earned a wire to wire victory to the clinch the title at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club in Taiwan. Hyun-Kyung Park and Young-Woong Kim were dominant from the word go, clinching the title with a brilliant eight-under 280.
Aditi and Karandeep signed on a combined 15-over 303 for their effort over 72 holes. Ridhima and Shubham were one shot back at 304. The tournament featured junior golfers from 13 countries and 25 teams.
The final day also had an individual competition, in which Karandeep finished 7th while Shubham was 12th among the boys. Among the girls, Ridhima was 7th and Aditi ended the week in 15th.
Thursday was not the most memorable of outings for Aditi, who won the British Open for Amateurs recently. She made six bogeys on the final day of competition against just a lone birdie. Karandeep, her playing partner made four bogeys and a birdie in his round to end the week.
“I didn’t play as well as I could have. I missed a few easy putts today which didn’t help me score but overall I was happy with my game and iron play,” said Aditi, the winner of the 2015 St. Rule Trophy at St. Andrews last month.
“I think I played pretty decent but made some silly mistakes. My hitting was good and I need to improve my putting to perform in international tournaments like these. This was a tremendous learning experience,” said the youngest member of the squad Karandeep.
A triple bogey at the 9th destroyed the rhythm and composure of 17 year old Shubham. The young man was going well at one under with a birdie at the sixth, but the big hiccup at the ninth affected him badly.
He went on to surrender shots at the 10th, 11th and 12th holes before adding a consolatory birdie at the 17th hole. He shot four over 76 in his final effort at the club in Taipei.
Ridhima kept her sheet clean through the front nine, but bogeys came thick and fast on the return stretch. She shot bogeys at the 11th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th. Two birdies – at the 12th and 16th helped her salvage a three-over 75.
“I think the round was good except for some bogeys in the back nine. Overall the round was good except for a few holes,” said Ridhima.
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