Mum or dad for tee? India’s Ashok has parental selection at Asian Video games

India medal hope Aditi Ashok has a troublesome option to make earlier than teeing up in a star-studded ladies’s golf area on the Asian Video games in Hangzhou on Thursday — will or not it’s mum or dad on her bag?

The 25-year-old completed agonisingly out of the medals in fourth on the Tokyo Olympics with effervescent mom Maheshwari, identified to everybody as “Mash”, as caddie.

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“Tokyo 2020 was an excellent expertise and having my mum caddie for me was a enjoyable expertise,” Ashok advised AFP earlier than leaving for China.

Mash and pa Gudlamani have taken turns as bag-carrier for the reason that golfer was seven and have been there in 2016 when, as a young person, she first grabbed headlines by successful the Girls’s Indian Open.

At 16 she was the youngest participant on the Rio Olympics the identical yr, along with her dad doing the caddie duties.

Her Tokyo exploits, the place she was in silver-medal place for the primary three rounds earlier than being edged off the rostrum by former world primary Lydia Ko, put ladies’s golf firmly on India’s sporting map.

However level-headed Ashok, who performs on the US LPGA and Girls European Excursions, didn’t dwell on her Tokyo disappointment.

“My mindset has all the time been to concentrate on the method greater than the result,” she stated.

“I all the time give my greatest and transfer on to the subsequent occasion. And I maintain doing the identical week after week.”

Ashok has gone on to crack the world’s high 50 for the primary time this yr after incomes a fourth European Tour win in Kenya in February.

“This season to this point has been the excessive level,” Ashok stated.

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“Not due to anybody week specifically, however primarily due to the way in which I’ve performed on each the excursions and managed my recreation in addition to breaking into the highest 50.”

Mum and pa have totally different kinds on the course, Ashok stated.

“My dad and I are likely to have extra discussions about (the best way to play) a shot as he is aware of my recreation effectively sufficient to assist,” Ashok stated.

“My mum doesn’t assist as a lot with the decision-making (on the course) however I really feel that helps too as I’m extra decisive and calmer whereas enjoying along with her on my bag.”

Grabbing consideration

Ashok first picked up a membership at age 5 in Bengaluru, the southern Indian tech hub the place she grew up, and commenced studying to play concurrently her mother and father.

Golf has been a defining facet of the household’s relationship however she says she has needed to work to “maintain issues separate” off the course.

FILE PHOTO: Aditi Ashok of India performs her tee shot on the first gap on Day Three of the AIG Girls’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Membership on August 12, 2023 in Tadworth, England.
| Picture Credit score:
Andrew Redington/ Getty Pictures

She was tight-lipped as to who would get the bag-carrying honour when Ashok leads a three-member ladies’s golf group on the West Lake Worldwide Golf Course in Hangzhou this week.

“I’m excited to play the Asian Video games in China and going about my apply and preparation to do my greatest,” she stated.

“I don’t need to go along with any expectations as a result of it doesn’t normally assist.”

Girls’s golf was nearly unknown in India earlier than Ashok’s Olympic achievements, which all started when the then-teenager was in eighth place after two rounds on the 2016 Rio Video games earlier than fading to complete forty first.

“I’m completely satisfied that golf will get the eye it wants from the media in our nation, the place cricket is probably the most dominating sport,” she stated.

“Hopefully this could develop much more now that now we have extra women and men enjoying the game professionally.”