Bangalore-based Aditi Ashok (14) is a natural of the golfing greens. Having started to swing the club at age six, she has since become the youngest player in the garden city with a scratch handicap, and last year this early teen has crowned the national amateur champion at the 95th All India Ladies Amateur Championship (Chandigarh). That’s not all. She bagged the Rolex Player of the Year award in the U-18 junior (girls) category and was also adjudged the youngest amateur golfer to win a professional ladies open tournament. Currently, Aditi is ranked No. 210 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings among 2,695 women worldwide and is also the Under-15 junior champion of India, a title she has held for the past three years.

The only child of Ashok Gudlamani, a property consultant, and homemaker Maheshwari, this class IX student of Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore, attributes her precocious success to home and school support. “Without the encouragement and unconditional support of my school, parents, coaches and the Indian Golf Union, I wouldn’t have got anywhere,” she acknowledges.

Aditi played her first round of 18 holes in 2004 at age six at the Bangalore Golf Club, where she used to practice putting with her parents on weekends. Backed by a maximum handicap of 36 which qualified her to compete in club tournaments, she won her maiden national award at age nine bagging a bronze in the 91st All India Ladies Amateur Championship, at Eagleton (an hour’s drive from Bangalore). Since then she has gone from strength to strength.  At age 11, she was highly ranked in the South Zone junior golf and the Indian Golf Union’s national junior and amateur tours.

All this hasn’t come easy. Aditi invests 3-4 hours daily on the greens with Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) professional coach Tarun Sardesai, and recently attended an intensive training workshop with international coach Steven Giuliano. In addition, she works out daily on a fitness regimen prescribed by coach Nicolas Cabaret and has stayed off aerated drinks and junk food since she was six. “More and more juniors are taking to the greens with as many following the game avidly,” observes Aditi.

With a national trophy occupying pride of place on her mantelpiece and high hopes of bagging a double this year, Aditi is practicing intensively and has set her sights on qualifying for the Asian Games 2014 and Olympics 2016.

Although she is bent on making a professional career in golf after completing her class XII exam in 2015, right now Aditi is striking a fine balance between academics and golf while preparing for her class X boards.

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)