Avani with her winning trophies in Manila, Philippines
16-year-old Avani Prashanth who has been making waves with her performances for the past two years created Indian sporting history in Manila, scoring rounds of 68-66-70-68 for a total of 16-under 272 to win the individual title at the Asia Pacific Ladies Amateur Championship (Queen Sirikit Cup) by a massive 10 strokes in a strong field that featured 4 players ranked in the top 20 in the world.
Avani also led the 3 member Indian team including Vidhatri Urs of Mysore and Nishna Patel of Mumbai to an unprecedented 2nd place finish only 5 strokes behind powerhouse South Korea and ahead of countries like Australia, Japan, Thailand and China. Compared to India’s average finish of around 8th or 9th in this tournament in the past decade, the jump to 2nd is nothing short of phenomenal.
Avani Prashanth, Vidhatri Urs & Nishna Patel finished five shots behind team Korea for a runner-up finish at the tournament
To put this in the right perspective – it’s like India winning individual gold and team silver medals at the Asian Games, something the Indian girls have never come close to in the past.
And the margin of 10 strokes is something like India winning an Asian Games men’s hockey final by a margin of 10-0 over Korea !!! Quite unimaginable but every bit as remarkable as such a result would be.
The team, selected by the Indian Golf Union, was better prepared than other recent Indian teams which have disappointed. Instead of holding a one week preparatory camp away from home, the IGU sent the team two days earlier to help them adjust to the time change and get an extra practice round on the course, which made all the difference. In the past the camps disrupt the players’ normal training routines and getting only one practice round has hampered familiarisation with the new conditions. We hope the newfound practice of IGU of actually taking player feedback, which has led to the success of the new practice will be followed in future events.
Speaking in Manila, Avani said, “I feel great. It’s been a long-awaited win and I’m excited for what the rest of the year holds. I’m just happy to get this win and I hope I can carry this form into the WAAP (Women’s Asia Pacific Amateur Championship to be held in Singapore in March).”
View this post on Instagram
International golf media have taken note of India’s rising new talent and India Golf Weekly has reported her every move closely for the past two weeks. We look forward to bringing our readers many more updates and insights on Avani’s successes in the coming months and years.
Historic moment for Indian golf! ️♀️
16 year old Avani Prashanth has just made history by becoming the 1️⃣st Indian to win the #QueenSirkitCup, an outstanding achievement ! She dominated the tournament, winning by a massive 11-shot margin. pic.twitter.com/XjMfVlgtu4
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) February 24, 2023