New Delhi: Pranavi Urs comes from Mysuru, a scenic city famous, among other things, for its annual festival parade, literary figures, erstwhile royalty. Add to that list the newly minted queen of golf.
Pranavi’s short par putt to seal gold didn’t even seem to register on the youngster, who later said she wasn’t sure if she had won or only gone into a playoff. It was a display of steel, an attribute when combined with skill execution of a high level under pressure produces champions. Still in the ‘zone’ as she merely smiled while hugging her playing partners, she could celebrate when Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar ran on to the green and poured water over Pranavi, the ritual to celebrate the winner on the tour. The day was anything but routine. And to test the young Indian’s resolve, she triple-bogeyed the third hole—she dropped shots in only three holes all tournament. But staying focused—her accurate iron play and finding the green were the feature of Pranavi’s game—she birdied the 6th, 10th and 13th.
The trio secured the team silver as well, 14-under to China’s winning 22-under aggregate. Chinese Taipei took the bronze (-10). Pranavi, although leading by three shots (-15), would have been wary of the lurking Shannon (-12) and Yin (-11). Besides, Aditi Ashok had missed gold at 2023 Hangzhou after a disastrous last round 77 pushed her to silver. Aditi shook off her struggles in the first three rounds to car a 3-under 67 to finish T14 (2-over 282) while Diksha ended T23 after her 77 left her 12-over for the tournament.
Pranavi ticked both those boxes at the Kasugai Country Club East course on Saturday.
The reward for coming through the wringer of a final round was a thrilling one-shot victory over China’s Yin Ruoning, the world No.6, a former world No.1 and Major winner, and a winner on the LPGA last week. Having started playing the game aged 8, she was 14 when she represented India in the 2017 amateur Malaysian Open and the Asia Pacific Sirikit Cup. And being inspired by Aditi’s near medal (she was 4th) at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Also breathing down the India’s neck was Signapore’s Shannon Tan, also an accomplished player and the halfway leader. Pranavi’s victory is likely to be a great milestone in Indian women’s golf. Uploading her statistics on Upgame app, a performance tracking and analytics platform used by players and coaches, led to selection for an international golf scholarship in the Bahamas. Her game development has been helped by the eight-year guidance of respected Aussie golf coach Steven Guiliano. The clarity in Pranavi’s approach play and course management were superb throughout, aspects they have focused on.
Ahead of the Asian Games, Pranavi told HT how the last three years on the Ladies European Tour, tackling conditions and top opponents, has raised her level.
