Avani Prashanth tops stroke-play at All India Ladies Amateur

By Rahul Banerji

Defending champion Avani Prashanth topped the stroke-play section of the 108th edition of the IGU All India Ladies Amateur Championship with an even-par 144 aggregate at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club on Wednesday.

The Bangalore teenager will now open the match-play event of the All India Ladies as the top seed over the next two days. In the 2021 final, Avani got the better of Kriti Chowhan 4&2 at the Noida Golf Course.

Ahmedabad National Games team golf medallists Karnataka dominated the opening two days at the RCGC, putting as many as six golfers into the top 10 of the stroke-play competition.

Besides Avani (72-72), the line-up included Rishika Muralidhar (77-77) in fourth place, Anvitha Narender (77-78), Saanvi Somu (76-79) and Jasmine Shekar (75-80) all sharing fifth place, and Vidhatri Urs (81-75) in a tie for eighth with Chitrangada Singh (75-81) of Bengal.

Finishing order

Mannat Brar of Punjab was second with a 149 aggregate (74-75) while Maharashtra’s Nishna Patel, who was the best Indian finisher at the Women’s Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Pattaya, was third on 153 (76-77).

There was a three-way tie for tenth place on 157 between Delhi’s Smriti Bhargav (80-77), Lavanya Jadon (79-78) of Haryana, and Gujarat’s Janneya A. Dasanniee (78-79).

Runner-up in 2021, Kriti Chowhan representing Rajasthan was 13^th on a 158 aggregate (76-82).

The top 32 finishers now enter the match-play round of the All India Ladies Amateur run by the Indian Golf Union, which has made no effort to share results of major national and international amateur events in the recent past.

In the first round, National Games individual gold winner Avani takes on Punjab’s Arushi Bhanot, Mannat plays Delhi’s Renee Rane, and Nishna meets Anahat Bindra of Bengal.

Match-play draw

Upper half: Avani Prashanth (Kar) vs Aarushi Bhanot (Pun); Snigdha Goswami (Assam) vs Karishma Samadder (WB); Vidhatri Urs (Kar) vs Ragini Navet (Delhi); Chitrangada Singh (WB) vs Anuradha Chaudhuri (Maha); Rishika Muralidhar (Kar) vs Tanishka Prithvi (Kar); Kriti Chowhan (Raj) vs Jia Kataria (Har); Anvitha Narender (Kar) vs Ketaki Sood (Maha) and Janneya A. Dasanniee (Guj) vs Vrinda Yadav (Kar).

Lower half: Mannat Brar (Pun) vs Renee Rane (Del); Preitish Gill (Har) vs Ananya Garg (Maha); Jasmine Shekar (Kar) vs Mayara Sharma (Maha); Smriti Bhargav (Del) vs Sinjini Mukherjee (WB); Nishna Patel (Maha) vs Anaahat Bindra (WB); Riya Jadon (Har) vs Gourabi Bhowmick (WB); Saanvi Somu (Kar) vs Yaalisai Verma (Har) and Lavanya Jadon (Har) vs Keerthana Rajeev (Kar).

Also read: Avani Prashanth, Kochhar win National Games golf gold medals