Avani Prashanth with her match play and stroke play trophies in 2021
Bangalore student, Avani Prashanth will defend her title this week at Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata and is the strong favourite, coming off her stunning 13 stroke victory a few days ago on the Hero Pro tour in Chandigarh.
Last year Prashanth beat Kriti Chowhan of Jaipur by 4 and 2 in the 36-hole final. Prashanth jumped out to 4-up lead after the first nine holes and was never seriously threatened after that. She pushed her lead to 6-up before Chowhan mounted a fightback, winning the 10th, 12th and 13th in the second round but Prashanth closed out the match on the 34th hole.
Besides Avani and Kriti, others likely to contend are Mannat Brar from Chandigarh and Nishna Patel from Mumbai.
The event starts with a 36 hole strokeplay event after which the top 32 qualify for matchplay knockout phase but with only 35 girls starting Round 1, almost everyone will go through to the matchplay phase.