A psychological barrier and a glass ceiling were both shattered in Indian golf on Sunday. First, 18-year-old Aditi Ashok beat off the challenge of the more-experienced American Brittany Lincicome and Spain's Belen Mozo to win the Hero Women's Indian Open in Gurugram. In doing so, the Bengaluru girl became the first Indian woman to win a Ladies European Tour title. Her win and a prize purse of $ 60,000, propelled her to the top spot in the Rookie of the Year rankings.
Then, in Manila, seasoned Kolkata's Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia, fighting off the challenge of a premium Asian Tour field at the $1 million Resorts World Manila Masters all week, pushed himself to a previously unknown level of attacking golf in the final round to storm to his first overseas win since he made the cut to play abroad in 2006. The normally-reticent Kolkatan, a regular winner on big-ticket events at home, pulled out all the stops in a threeway play-off between Malaysia's Nicholas Fung and US rookie Sam Chien for the $180,000 prize. It is proving a heady few months for both Aditi and 38year-old Chawrasia, who had just soaked in the atmosphere of the Olympics at Rio, with golf making a return to the Games after 112 years. In true professional manner, while a confident Chawrasia is next headed for the World Cup in Melbourne, Aditi is simply letting to allow the feeling to sink in.
