As the publication that most closely tracks top Indian players in India and globally as they make the country proud, India Golf Weekly is proud to recognise India’s Players of the Year ( POTY) for 2021, a year filled with challenges and opportunities like never before.
Indian Men’s POTY – Anirban Lahiri & Indian Ladies’ POTY – Aditi Ashok
Anirban Lahiri
34-year-old Anirban Lahiri is our choice of winner for the Global Indian POTY in Men’s category for yet another successful year on the hyper competitive United States PGA Tour.
Anirban, the only Indian regular on the PGA Tour successfully renewed his card for the 7th season in 2022, accumulating nearly US$ 1 million in official money, finishing 118th on the Fedex cup. He creditably took two weeks off during a critical time in the season to represent India for a second time at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
On the PGA Tour, Anirban played a total of 22 events, made 12 cuts and registered a tied-3rd finish at the Barbasol Championship earlier in July.
Stats – (Rank on Tour)
Driving Distance – 298.4 Yards (80th)
Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green – .116 (97th)
Strokes Gained Off-the-Tee – .280 (38th)
Putting Average – 1.716 (8th)
Overall Putting Average – 1.569 (10th)
One-putt percentage – 42.4% (13th)
Aditi Ashok
Aditi Ashok
Among the ladies, we salute 23-year-old Bangalorean Aditi Ashok, who remains India’s only LPGA member. She too was able to retain her playing rights in USA for the 5th successive year and of course stole the limelight in Tokyo by finishing one stroke away from a playoff to decide the silver and gold medals. Aditi registered three top-10s in America and two on the Ladies European Tour (LET).
Aditi closed out on her season with a tied-6th finish at the Pelican Women’s Championship last month in Florida after shooting 67-71-65-64 (-13) to collect US$ 45, 746.
In total Aditi amassed US$ 231,225 on the LPGA Tour and US$ 84,000 on the LET to conclude her season with US$ 315,000 (₹2.4 crores) in prize earnings.
Stats –
Average Driving Distance – 236.95 (153rd)
Driving Accuracy – 78.89% (17th)
GIR – 61.81% (147th)
Putting Average – 29.07 (6th)
Credits:-
Photo – Olympics/LET Flickr