Gaurika Bishnoi
Gurgaon’s Gaurika Bishnoi and Jahanvi Bakshi were the only two Indian golfers to make it through the Ladies European Tour (LET) Qualifying School’s Pre Qualifier at Real Golf La Manga Club in Spain. 23-year-old Bishnoi shot 75-73-70-73 to finish in a tie for 18th at 3-over 291, while the 19-year-old Bakshi shot 75-70-79-70 to finish in a tie for 37th at 6-over 294.
The pair will join Chandigarh’s Amandeep Drall and Gurgaon’s Vani Kapoor in the Final Qualifier scheduled from Dec. 16-20 at the same venue. Drall and Kapoor had received direct entries into the Final.
Jahanvi Bakshi
Ten Indian golfers were in the fray in the Pre Qualifier, with the top 75 and ties from a 150-strong field progressing. The qualifying mark fell at 12-over 300. For 71 holes, it looked like Delhi’s Seher Atwal would make it through to the Final as well, but a heartbreaking double bogey on the last hole meant she missed out by one shot. Florida based Sharmila Nicollet had her chances too, needing to play the last four holes in one-under to sneak in on the line. But she couldn’t overcome a dropped shot on the 15th. A closing birdie on the 18th left her one stroke short of going through. Even Mysore’s Pranavi Urs was inside the cut line until a triple bogey on the 14th in the final round, knocked her out of contention.
Here are the final scores for the Indians who missed the cut: Seher Atwal (+13), Sharmila Nicollet (+13), Pranavi Urs (+16), Hitaashee Bakshi (+17), Durga Nittur (+22), Asmitha Sathish (+24), Suchitra Ramesh (+37) and Gauri Karhade (+43).
The 10 Indian players in the field represented a significant increase from 2019, when only two golfers – Nicollet and Drall – participated. Nicollet made it to the Finals that year but did not eventually qualify.
Only England with 29 entries, Sweden with 18 and the host country Spain with 13 had more entries than India – which is quite a bizarre statistic considering how few ladies play the game in our country. It’s a testament to the 14 event Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour which has helped groom Indian talent.
Three Indians are already fully qualified to play the LET in 2022 based on their performances in 2021 – Tvesa Malik, Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar and it remains to be seen if any of the 4 Indians in the final qualifier will join them in 2022.
Here’s the break-up of entries in the LET pre qualifying by country:
England – 29
Sweden – 18
Spain – 13
India – 10
France – 8
Germany – 8
Scotland – 8
Finland – 7
Netherlands – 6
Czech Republic – 5
USA – 5
Norway – 4
South Korea – 4
Switzerland – 3
Canada – 2
Malaysia – 2
Wales – 2
Northern Ireland – 2
Australia – 2
Marrakech – 2
Italy – 1
Slovakia – 1
Portugal – 1
Argentina – 1
Tunisia – 1
Japan – 1
Thailand – 1
Nigeria – 1
U.S. Virgin Islands – 1
Credits:-
Photo – LET Flickr