Anika continues impressive form with US team event slot

By Rahul Banerji

Anika Varma continues to progress, and impress, her latest achievement being to qualify for a top US women’s amateur team event to be held next year.

On Tuesday, Anika and her partner Meghan Royal earned a berth at the 6^th US Women’s Four-Ball Championship when they topped a qualifying event in Arizona on Tuesday.

The two 16-year-olds, along with Sydney Bryan and Grace Summerhays finished as the top two pairs at the Longbow Golf Club in Mesa.

A ward of coach Noah Montgomery in Roseville, California, Anika became the first Indian to play the US Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this year.

“We played according to each other, which helped us a lot just because we knew when a person was confident and wasn’t,” Anika said on the Arizona Golf Association’s website.

Going for it

“We complimented each other a lot, we kind of just had one of us make par and the other just go for it and play aggressive and see if we could make birdie,” added her partner Royal.

USGA qualifying was officially back in action after COVID-19 forced golf associations to postpone, and in some cases cancel, qualifiers in 2020, azgolf.org said.

The 2021 US Four-Ball Championship qualifiers were the first to resume, with 64 teams across 29 states advancing to the 2021 championship, which will be held from April 24 to 28 next year at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.

The two 16-year-old from California combined to card a 10-under 62 and finish field four shots clear of the field for medallist honours.

With consistent play over 18 holes, the pair pieced together an impressive round with eight birdies and an eagle, the website said.

For Anika, now studying the at Granite Bay High School in Roseville, the Texas event will be her third USGA Championship.

Path-breaker

As a top-225 amateur in the world and no. 1 ranked amateur in India, she was the first Indian golfer to play at the US Women’s Amateur Championship this August.

Anika also played the girls championship at the SentryWorld course in Wisconsin last July besides racking u some impressive performances on the Cactus Tour earlier in the year.

“I feel like it’s going to be really interesting because it’s going to be completely different than how you generally play,” Anika told arzgolf.org.  

“We’re going to be playing for each other and that’s going to motivate us more than playing for yourself. It should be fun.”

On the Ladies European Tour’s Access Series, Tvesa Malik had an opening round of 2-over 74 that included four birdies, four bogeys and a double on day one of the Lavaux Open in Switzerland.

Atwal, Lahiri grouped together

Meanwhile, on the PGA Tour, Anirban Lahiri and Arjun Atwal were drawn in the same group for the opening rounds of the 2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic.

They will be joined by another familiar face to Indian golf fans, Daniel Chopra, who is also Florida-based like Atwal and Lahiri.

Also in the field is impressive Indian-American teenager Akshay Bhatia who will tee it up at Corales after his top-10 at the Safeway Open won by Stewart Cink.

The 18-year-old became the youngest player to finish in the top 10 of a stroke-play event on the PGA Tour since Justin Rose at the 1998 Open Championship, the Tour website said. 

Bhatia finished with a 16-under four-day aggregate of 272 (66-72-66-68) for a share of ninth place, while Lahiri was T36 on 12-under 276 (74-65-67-70).

For the first time, the Caribbean event will offer a full 500 FedEx Cup points after it was postponed to September as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the website added.

The event will be featured twice in the 2020-21 season, and again in March, it added.

Sharma, Bhullar at Irish Open

Across the Atlantic, Gaganjeet Bhullar returns to active golf after six-month break, other than a fund-raising hit-out alongside Kapil Dev at the Delhi Golf Club.

Bhullar joins Shubhankar Sharma at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, which tees off at the Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort in Northern Ireland on Thursday.

The 2019 Open champion, Shane Lowry, is also in the field to defend his title.

While Sharma will tee off alongside Joachim Hansen of Denmark and Scotland’s David Law, Bhullar has been clubbed with England’s Steven Brown and Ashley Chesters for the first two rounds.

Also read: Anika Varma falls in Round of 32 at US Girls Championship