Tenacious Anika eases into Round of 32 at US Girls Championship

By Rahul Banerji

Scrappy 15-year-old Anika Varma eased into the round of 32 at the expense of a higher-ranked opponent on day three of the 71^st US Girls Championship at the SentryWorld Course in Wisconsin on Wednesday.

Up against Nicole Adam, ranked several places higher than her, Anika showed nerves of steel to outpoint her 16-year-old rival 3 and 1 to set up her second knockout match against another American, Nicole Whiston at the USGA tournament which will end on Saturday with a 36-hole final..

Anika, ranked 787^th in the Women’s Amateur Golf Rankings, kept her nose head all the way in the round of 64 match against an opponent who stands 617^th on the WAGR. But for one short phase when Adam was able to tie the scores at the 13^th hole, the plucky Indian had the edge all the way.

Gutsy golf

It was a gutsy effort and one that needed all the tenacity Anika could muster. After she and Nicole had split the opening hole, the Indian went 2-up by the third hole and stayed ahead till the turn though the American threatened briefly, pulling the score back twice.

But Anika parred the eighth and ninth while Nicole went one-over on both to slip three behind after the ninth hole.

On the inbound nine, Nicole won three of the first four holes to pull level, all on birdies before Anika pulled herself together to close out the match with a hole to spare.

She was three up again at that point and dormy after the 17^th hole, her only bogey of the match coming in the 10^th, a measure of her consistency.

Follow the action here: U.S. GIRLS’ JUNIOR

The two girls shared four of the 17 holes contested, Anika winning eight to Nicole’s count of five. In the qualifying rounds, Nicole had finished 14^th to Anika’s 51^st placing.

Noida-based Anika next faced the 489^th ranked Whiston, who took out 19^th place finisher and fellow-American Irene Kim. Whiston had finished 46^th after the two strokeplay rounds.

Easy winner

The Philippines’ Yuka Saso, who topped the stroke play rounds, hammered the 64^th and final qualifier Kaylee Sakoda 6 and 4 while second placed Maddison Hinson-Tolchard of Australia was taken the distance by 63^rd placed qualifier Caroline Hodge on the 19th hole.

In all, five of the 16 matches needed an extra hole to decide the winner while another five were settled by a single hole margin.

According to the USGA’s event notes, nine countries are represented in the Round of 32, led by the USA with 23, and the People’s Republic of China (two). Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, India, Mexico and Philippines each have one representative.

Interesting possibility

Meanwhile, according to the USGA, 15-year-old Grace Summerhays of Arizona is in line for a possible brother-sister Junior title double after her brother, Preston, who is serving as her caddie, won the US Junior Amateur last Saturday in Ohio.

The Summerhays are a full-fledged golfing family. Their father, Boyd, was a Canadian Tour player and is now a golf instructor who works with PGA tour regular Tony Finau as well as 1999 US Junior champion Hunter Mahan.

Grace’s uncle, Daniel, plays on the Korn Ferry Tour and was a quarter-finalist in the 2001 US Amateur, and her great uncle, Bruce Summerhays, is a three-time PGA Tour Champions winner.

European action

In a short while, young Indians Pranavi Urs and Arjun Bhato go into action at the 2019 European Young Masters in the Czech Republic for which they were nominated by the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation.

The two Indians are joined by Mirabel Ting of Malaysia and Thailand’s Pongsapak Laopakdee and the four APGC nominees will be up against Europe’s best under-16 golfers over three days of stroke play at the par-72 Golf & Spa Kunětická Hora, the European Golf Association said.

The APGC team is accompanied by Ishwar Achanta as advisor and Rabetul Abbas as captain.

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Also read: Anika Varma sits mid-pack in USGA jr women’s c’ship