Anika Varma
17-year-old Anika Varma, a high school student in Sacramento, California, shot 69-68-70-71 (10-under 278) to finish 9th at Asia’s top Women’s Amateur event – the prestigious Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Golf Championship at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club which is hosted by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation, the R&A of St Andrews and Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters.
Anika who has had a stellar year in USA was bogey free for the first two days and registered India’s first ever top-10 finish in the tournament. While in America, Anika had finished runner-up at the West Coast Women’s Amateur, won the AJGA Tahoe Junior Championship, tied-5th at the California Women’s Amateur amongst other strong performances.
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Avani Prashanth at WAAP
15-year-old Avani Prashanth of Bangalore, the second youngest player in the field, played steady golf shooting 71-71-71-70 (5-under 283) to finish tied-16th. Two other Indian girls out of the six player squad made the cut. Sifat Sagoo, completing college at Purdue University, shot 71-72-72-70 (3-under 285) to finish tied-25th and Kriti Chowhan of Jaipur shot 76-70-73-69 (even-par 288) to finish tied-34th.
17-year-old Sneha Singh of Hyderabad, a two-time winner on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour (Hero WPGT) shot 73-75 (+4) and Nishna Patel of Mumbai shot 78-78 (+12) to miss the cut.
Anika Varma, talking about her week in Abu Dhabi, said, “My coach (Noah Montgomery) and I have been focusing on the positives of my rounds rather than focusing on the bad, celebrating the victories even though they are minor. This mindset helps me to fall in love with the sport even more. I am now trusting the process. It is so important to accept your game. If you don’t trust your journey then it becomes really hard to keep on moving forward with your game.”
Anika will move to Oregon University next year, on full scholarship playing for the Ladies Golf Team in NCAA college competitions.
WAAP Team – Standing (L-R) – Anika Varma, Sifat Sagoo & Nishna Patel
Seating (L-R) – Sneha Singh, Kriti Chowhan & Avani Prashanth
The tournament saw the 75 best lady players from around the Asia Pacific region in action and the winner was Mizuki Hashimoto from Japan with an impressive 16-under par total. She now receives invitations to play in two major pro championships – The AIG Women’s Open, The Amundi Evian Championship & Hana Financial Group Championship as well as a spot at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur which features the best lady amateur golfers in the world.
Credits:-
Photo – WAAP