August 7, 2021. It’s 5am in India and there’s already a buzz among sports fans. Aditi Ashok, ranked 200 in the world, started the fourth and final day of the Tokyo Olympic golf competition in second place. She’s tied with LPGA star Lydia Ko and home favourite Mone Inami, just two shots shy of world no. 1 Nelly Korda. All she has to do, for a historic medal, is continue what she did those first three days.
Aditi starts well, with birdies on the 5th, 6th and 8th holes, but then her driving, weakened by a bout of Covid, falters, and she bogeys on the 9th and 11th holes. She recovers with birdies in the 13th and 14th holes and stays in contention. Yet there’s more drama – the thunderstorm that had been predicted, and for which play began an hour early, arrives when the players are at the penultimate hole. Play is held up for an hour at this crucial juncture. Back home in India this allows the late-risers to join in the action, all relayed live on TV and streams.
But the break is bad news for Aditi; as play resumes, disaster strikes: her putt, from 4.52m out, sees the ball kiss the cup. She misses the birdie and is now a stroke behind and out of medal contention. That one shot puts Aditi in an elite but tragic club of India’s fourth-placed Olympians, featuring Milkha Singh, PT Usha, Abhinav Bindra and Dipa Karmakar.
Exactly three years later, Aditi Ashok will have a shot at redemption, a chance to make up for the crushing disappointment of those few hours in Tokyo. The Paris Olympics golf event begins on August 7 and, given the form she’s been in, will back herself against the world’s best.
But she will have another battle to fight: the battle against whatever it is – “nerves” is probably the best description – that has tripped her at big events. Last year, Aditi was a dead cert to win gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games going into the final round but managed to turn in one of the worst rounds of her career, watching a seven-stroke lead disappear, compounded by a double bogey in the 16th hole. Gold had evaporated, and though India did win their first-ever medal in women’s golf at the Asian Games, it was silver.
At her first Olympics, in Rio 2016, she ended the first two rounds in second place, but she eventually finished 41st. She was 18 then, and had just completed her Class XII exams, and her age and relative freshness softened the judgement at that time.
Now, entering her third Olympics, the spotlight will be on her. It’s why 7-10 August 2024 at the Le Golf National course matters so much to Aditi. “Very excited about that. Hopefully, do better than what I did in Tokyo,” she told Hindustan Times earlier this year.
An upward curve
It helps that Aditi is in the form of her life – 2023 was the best year of her career by a mile, and it’s carried over into 2024, when she’s achieved her career-best ranking of 39. She narrowly missed out on a historic LPGA title at the LA Championships in 2023, but her second-placed finish is the best result by an Indian golfer on the tour. Aditi also won the season-ending Costa del Sol tournament in Spain on the LET tour defeating a star-studded field.
Looking back at 2023 and reminiscing about one of the best years of my career so far. Winning a couple times on @letgolf was so much fun and bettered my career best finish on the @LPGA. Getting a medal for my country at the Asian Games was also pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/raRf8YVf46
– Aditi Ashok (@aditigolf) December 31, 2023
All this has raised hopes for her to do the same in Paris, her Olympic ranking of 26 just an afterthought – her status as a medal candidate is accepted.
The marked improvement in Aditi’s fortunes has come because of her improvement in driving distances when compared to Tokyo. Jesse Grewal, the only golf coach to win the Dronacharya Award, says he’s seen her improve physically and thus gain yards. “She didn’t have the length earlier, but I saw her at the Asian Games and her length has improved a lot and she is looking stronger herself, physically.”
Aditi’s added an average of about 9-10 yards to her driving distances (average of 235 to 244) over the last couple of years, which has helped her to five top-10 finishes in the LPGA last year (she had six in her career until then). “I’m not saying hitting long is the only thing that got me there, but for me that was the missing piece,” Aditi told the Times of India in an interview earlier this year. “You still have to do the rest of the stuff good enough and just those added 20-30 yards off the tee helps me get closer to winning.”
Every Indian athlete that has qualified for the Olympics so far
The improvement comes with an asterisk: Aditi is driving it longer but she’s still a long way off from the big-hitters. Her strength remains her short game, which continues to improve (she ranks 7th in the world in putting averages in 2024).
“She makes up with her approach shots and her putting and a very calm, cool mind – she has her strengths. It’s not only long hitters who win tournaments in golf – it’s a game of accuracy,” says Grewal.
Aditi’s form will also be important in terms of her mental outlook when she faces the course in Paris. “If you come from missing cuts for the last five tournaments, you do not feel that great, you’re not that confident about going into anything. So, form is very important. Because when you’re hitting it well, you have the confidence of going flat out. You have the feeling that you can do it. Otherwise, you’re playing defensive – you’re always worried about all the obstacles, the water,” explains Grewal.
Paris and Le Golf National
Accuracy will likely determine Aditi’s shot at redemption in Paris, given the competition will take place at the Albatros course in Le Golf National, which played host to the Ryder Cup in 2018. These holes have caught out the best in the business, especially the final four holes that are surrounded by several water hazards. “You have to really think on that golf course,” is how Grewal puts it.
It seems a bit disingenuous to count this as a point in Aditi’s favour, especially when it was a water hazard in the 16th hole that caught her out in Hangzhou, but the stats do bear it out. Aditi’s accuracy from the tee is quite impressive, finding the fairways with regularity (she ranks in the top 20s in the world), and given that Golf National rewards accuracy over power it does seem a point in her favour.
Another point in Aditi’s favour is the Olympic field is typically weaker than the LPGA tour – countries can send a maximum of four golfers (provided they are all in the top 15) and only two if they are outside that, totalling 60 golfers teeing off in Paris in August. It’s still a tough field nonetheless, and reigning Olympic champion and world no. 1 Nelly Korda will be around too, as will former world no.1 and bronze winner in Tokyo, Lydia Ko. Aditi’s performances at golf majors haven’t been much to write home about, but as recently as March, she finished above Ko, world no. 9 Minjee Lee and world no.13 Xiyu Lin at the Women’s World Championships.
Oh her day, Aditi can beat the best, especially in such a tight field as the LPGA. Even her best-ever result in April 2023 at the LA Championships had seen her beat Korda, but finish second to world no.8 Hannah Green in a playoff to decide the winner.
Aditi in an Indian jersey
Perhaps the biggest difference is what happens when Aditi puts on the India shirt: She seems to put aside her rank and form and turns in champion performances. It’s a jersey that weighs heavy, because Aditi feels an ‘added sense of responsibility’ when playing for India.
But with the weight comes the responsibility, and the added disappointment when things don’t turn out as expected, as at the Asian Games. “It took me a bit to get over that,” she told Hindustan Times earlier this year. “Because, you were not just playing for yourself… It’s not the same when you play for your country and when everyone is expecting a gold medal. I knew that it meant a lot more to people and young kids back home, who would never have watched golf otherwise, sitting and watching it.”
Grewal, who was the Team India coach at the Asian Games, saw it all from up close. “That’s golf,” he says. “You can’t say it’s because of pressure or something else. There were a lot of reasons in the Asian games for things to not work out: You don’t have your own caddy. There was no food at the venue. They had to get up early every day at four o’clock and reach the golf course. So, things were not conducive in Hangzhou.”
It’s clear, though, that Aditi thrives on the added weight of the Indian jersey, and Grewal agrees. “You know that there are millions of people watching you and praying and hoping for you to do well.” The spotlight will be firmly on her, but such is her impact that big things are expected of the rest of the Indian contingent as well – Diksha Dagar, Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar [they will be officially confirmed on June 24, it is but a formality that they should qualify].
Challenging course and weather at shadow creek last week. Thanks to @LPGAMatchPlay for an awesome tournament and Shadow Creek for their hospitality and spectacular venue. pic.twitter.com/Z7UeQ03AZA
– Aditi Ashok (@aditigolf) April 9, 2024
Grewal counts this as India’s best-ever team, saying “It’s very unpredictable, but we have the strongest Indian team going into the Olympics this year. They are all veterans who are not going to feel pressurized by being on the world stage because they have been playing on this stage for a long, long time. They are not greenhorns; they are seasoned guys. Now we just have to hope that everything works out for them.”
Luck seems to be a common theme when talking about Aditi Ashok and golf, but the very best make their own luck. Now 26, she has the experience of the biggest events, of beating the odds to come close in Tokyo and win silver in Hangzhou, of luck deserting her in the crucial moments. Yet, given the amount of girls that have taken up the sport after watching her heroics in Tokyo (especially in Bangalore) perhaps Aditi doesn’t need to make her own luck this time around.
She’ll have the wishes of those girls she’s inspired to count on – and that is enough to avoid a water hazard or two, enough for that elusive Olympic medal.