Thanks to Pranavi Urs’ gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, there is a new spring in the step of Indian golf. It almost happened the last time in Hangzhou with Aditi Ashok, but ever since COVID, we have had a lull in international achievements.
Like Aditi, Anirban Lahiri’s second-place finishes on LIV Golf – the ones on his debut in Boston, followed by the loss to Bryson DeChambeau in Chicago in 2023 and his playoff loss to Sergio Garcia at Valderrama – were more heartbreaking than heartwarming. Finishing second sucks, sometime more than a top-five finish.
An Asian Games gold medal is a huge achievement because of the platform. Millions of fans are invested in every sport where India has a chance. Jeev Milkha Singh would often say that he’d consider an Asiad or an Olympic medal even bigger than winning a major championship, just because of the kind of impact it creates.
Pranavi’s win will benefit the whole Indian golf ecosystem.
To begin with, the entire Government – starting from the President and the Prime Minister’s Office to cabinet ministers and departments – congratulated Pranavi on her achievement. That’s a great start for a country like ours, where golf has faced nothing but apathy so far.
Let me give you a personal example of how much euphoria this has generated. Three of my Saturday tweets on Pranavi garnered more than 120,000 views and numerous likes and comments. In nearly 16 years of tweeting on Indian golf, I have never experienced such a response.
It’s now going to percolate down. It will create much more interest in the media and help golf courses, the coaching system, and equipment sellers, because more people will want to try their hand at the game.
Because Pranavi’s glory has come at a very opportune moment, the Indian Golf Union (IGU), hopefully, is prepared to ride this momentum and build on it.
The Hero Women’s Indian Open, scheduled for October 22-25, would be a great place to start. It will be played the week after the DP World India Championship, where we will have three reigning major champions – Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai and Ryan Fox – in attendance.
Unlike the men’s Indian Open, the IGU does not ‘own’ the women’s version. Having said that, if they are unable to celebrate this achievement at the biggest women’s tournament in the country, it would be a shame. Neither Hero MotoCorp nor the Women’s Golfers Association of India (WGAI) and the Ladies European Tour (LET) are going to say no to them. There is still time to plan and execute something that would make every junior golfer in the country to become the next Pranavi.
The IGU has announced a cash reward of INR10 lakh, which is a great start. But the real tribute to her would be how golf’s governing body in the country can now strategise and leverage this moment when the whole nation’s eyes are on the sport.
As for Pranavi herself, this must not become the seminal moment of her career. The Mysuru girl is just 23 and uber talented. She now needs to take this confidence to the international stage. A consistent performer on the Ladies European Tour (LET), she is yet to win a title there. And if she does not play on the LPGA soon, it would be an injustice to herself.
“How come she is ranked 289th in the world?” asked a fan on social media, clearly impressed by the magnitude of her success against a player as accomplished as China’s Ruoning Yin, a former world No1. That’s because the Rolex Rankings are heavily biased towards the LPGA, which has the best women golfers playing there. That’s where Pranavi needs to be.
Let’s not forget our men
Apart from Pranavi’s gold, the ladies also grabbed the team silver. That was another huge achievement. Even though Korea and Japan did not send their best-ranked players, their depth is mind-boggling. Their players have been dominating on the LPGA, and whenever Nelly Korda or Atthaya Thitikul are not winning, you can be sure it is a player from these countries.
Aditi did not have the outing she wanted last week, but she was clutch when the team medal was on the line. That run of six straight birdies on the back nine on Saturday was vintage Aditi and so critical to change the colour of the medal.
Equally brilliant were the Indian men. The men’s field was definitely stronger than the women’s, and for Saptak Talwar and Veer Ahlawat to finish tied sixth was fantastic. The two bogeys by Ahlawat on the ninth and 10th in the final round, and the double by Talwar on the 12th proved critical and denied India a march to the podium.