Hitaashee shared 36-hole lead at the tournament in Singapore
19-year-old Hitaashee Bakshi from Delhi, the current rankings leader on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour of India with two wins to her name, made her China LPGA debut at the US$100,000 Singapore Ladies Masters last week with a creditable 3rd place finish at 4-under 212.
In Hitaashee’s own words, “I was pretty excited for the week since it was my debut at the China LPGA! On day one I had my tee off around 12:30 pm but after only playing 1 and a half holes the siren blew off- and the game was stopped for the next 5 and a half hours due to heavy lightning, thunderstorms and rain.”
We teed off at 5:30 in the evening and only could play till the 8th hole. Since we were still playing in the rain it was very tough to adapt to such conditions after sitting for 5 and a half hours, after day 1 I was at T-60th.
The next day I came to the golf course at 5:30am and left the golf course at 7:14pm!
I played 28 holes that day.
First 10 holes tee off was at 7:10 which was a shot gun tee off and then at 12:45 round 2 started. The day was similar to day 1 thundering and lighting was still there and the game would have had to be stopped.
I was really focused on round 2 since I knew I was at the cut line which was at +3 back then(the cut went at +8) I kept making birdies and was patient when the game was stopped, since I had a prior experience on day 1- when the game was stopped on day2 I just went to the ladies room, changed my socks and slept, because I didn’t want to think about anything else rather than golf and my round. By the end of the round 2, I joined the leader, which was a pretty sudden thing for me, as I wasn’t expecting myself to jump from T60 to T-1
The last day was a very slow day, just kept hitting greens and the putts didn’t go well, I made 15 pars, 1 bogey(6th hole) and 2 birdies.
The major change I had was I bought a new LAB red colour putter, it was totally a sudden decision as I was struggling with my putting for a really long time so I decided to change the “look” of my putter to have a new feeling in my hands and shake off the old feeling.
This week taught the real value of confidence and patience, if I hadn’t been patient enough over the round 2 I wouldn’t have been able to score this well.]
Seher Atwal, who is ranked 7th on the HWPGT in 2024, shot an opening round of 77 and on the following day, poised to make the cut, she was cruelly disqualified for her group choosing to play her final hole after the warning siren had been sounded for stoppage due to darkness. Seher said her group thought it was up to them whether or not to finish the final hole which she, however, had not started when the horn was sounded.
Indian Amateur Mahreen Bhatia carded three consecutive rounds of 76-76-76 to register a tied-68th place finish at 12-over 228.
Photo – CLPGA