Christine Wolf returns to defend HWIO title after three-year wait

By Rahul Banerji

Austria’s Christine Wolf has been waiting to defend her treasured Hero Women’s Indian Open title for three years now.

After coming tantalisingly close in 2018, Christine showed her mettle to win the event at the DLF Golf & Country Club in 2019.

Since then she has not been able to defend her title as the event could not be held in 2020 and 2021 with the Coronavirus pandemic killing chances of the event.

The Austrian is keen to return to the course, which has given her both agony and ecstasy. In 2018, she allowed the trophy to slip away with a quadruple bogey 18th hole on the third day.

It was a nightmare as she lost no less than eight shots at the hole. In 2019, however, Wolf made amends and made sure she sealed the win, her only Ladies European Tour title.

Christine did not begin the current season as well as she would have liked. After a modest T16 in Kenya, she was way down on the leaderboard over the next few starts.

But with the Hero Women’s Indian Open approaching, her form has picked up dramatically.

After zero top 15 finishes in her first six starts, she was tied for 12th at the Aland 100 ladies Open, T15 at VP Swiss bank Ladies Open and shared sixth at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France.

Back in form

Her most recent display was a tied fourth at the KPMG Irish Women’s Open.

When Christine won here three years ago, she recalled that her local caddie, Ajay, had taken the 2018 loss personally and kept in touch throughout the year.

In 2019 they celebrated the triumph together.

“He took the loss personally. He said, ‘I’m so sorry, ma’am, I think it was my fault.’ I said, ‘Well the only thing you could have done differently was hit that shot for me’, so it was nice having him there and I think he was super excited as well.”

Now it remains to be seen how things pan out as Christine returns to the venue and the 18th hole that has been so crucial in her career. 

Christine has also played the Rio and Tokyo  Olympics and is an avid adventure sports junkie.

She loves skiing, mountain biking and rock climbing besides swimming and tennis. Her LET career has seen as many as 20 Top-20 finishes, but just one win.

Little wonder therefore that the Hero Women’s Indian Open means so much to Christine Wolf.

Also read: Wolf brings it home at HWIO this time as Anika takes top-5 finish