Aditi Ashok: The golfer who wants to make the sport popular in India

Aditi Ashok was nearly six when she watched golf for the first time. That fascination has taken her on some journey in the sport. Quite literally, as she became the first Indian Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) player in 2017 and finished eighth in the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year standings.

Not only that, she was also the youngest golfer at 18 years and four months, to qualify for Rio 2016. It should also be noted that the Bengaluru-golfer was the only Indian female representative in the sport during Rio 2016. At Tokyo though, she will be joined by Diksha Dagar who got a late call-up after a withdrawal.

She started leaving a mark on the golf course pretty early. Aditi was 12 when she had made a cut at the Asia-Pacific Invitational tournament, where the normal age range for qualifying is between 18 to 22 years. At the age of 13, she would go on to win her first professional tour in India. Besides that, the prolific golfer has also been a three-time National Junior champion (2012-14), two-time National Amateur champion (2011, 2014) and the only Indian golfer to feature at the Asian Youth Games (2013), Youth Olympic Games (2014) and Asian Games (2014).

And all her achievements are focused around making the sport popular in India. She also believes that social media can be used as a tool to achieve that goal and as a result she isn't switching off it ahead of Tokyo 2020.

“I don’t post that often to use social media as much. I’m there to post and not really on it and scrolling. So I haven’t really thought about disconnecting,” Aditi told the Indian Express.

The 23-year-old further believes that the sport can grow popular among girls during the Olympics. She, however, has observed that the participation among female athletes have increased quite significantly in the recent past. 

“When I was 10, there were only around four other girls my age playing this sport," she told livemint. “Today there are around 20 at the national level".

It is also noticeable that several golf courses have come up in her hometown in Bengaluru, from the three that there were during the time she first took to the sport. And as she continues to be an inspiration for many in the country, a few more female golfers like her are bound to follow her footsteps.  

When will Aditi Ashok's campaign at Tokyo 2020 begin?

Ashok will begin her campaign at Tokyo 2020 in the women's individual Round 1 on August 4, Wednesday.