From L-R – Vidhatri Urs, Heena Kang & Zara Anand at Clearwater GC in Christchurch, NZ
Extremely windy conditions at the seaside Clearwater GC in Christchurch, New Zealand provided a stiff challenge to the three member Indian team for the Asia Pacific Women’s International Team Championship ( also known as Queen Sirikit Cup) but 15-year-old Zara Anand from Delhi performed admirably with rounds of 73-77-74-72 to register a tied-12th individual finish at a total score of even-par 288.
Earlier, Zara shared a three-way tie for the lead with her opening round of 73.
Vidhatri Urs, the current All India Ladies Champion, carded rounds of 79-77-73-79 to register a tied-24th finish at 20-over, followed by Heena Kang of Chandigarh at tied-34th with her rounds of 85-76-74-78 for a total score of 25-over.
In the teams section, team India stood tied-9th with their cumulative rounds of 152-153-147-150 at a total score of 26-over par. Korea registered a dominating win again at 9-under par with Japan finishing runner-up at 2-under.
Last year in Manila, the Indian team finished an all time best 2nd place in the same event, led by Avani Prashanth, who took the individual title at 16-under 272 to register a dominating 10-shot win.
The alien playing conditions, along with a short period to adjust to the time difference and recover after a gruelling 40 hour plane journey from India, didn’t help the Indian cause. The lack of a professional coach , physiotherapist, who accompanies leading national teams like Korea and Japan, provides the Indians with further challenges.
Photo – IGU