Khushi Khanjau celebrates holiday season early with maiden title

By Rahul Banerji

Khushi Khanijau turned in a stunning birdie-birdie finish to emerge as a deserving victor in the 15^th and final leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club on Friday.

It was a maiden visit to the winner’s circle for the 21-year-old from Jaipur who joined the professional ranks 2018.

Khushi’s previous best was a tied second alongside Tvesa Malik and behind Amandeep Drall in her rookie year at the Boulder Hills in Hyderabad.

Khushi was Rookie of the Year in 2018.

She also became the fifth first-time winner in 2021 after Jahanvi Bakshi, who added three more titles, Seher Atwal and Lakhmehar Pardesi and amateur Avani Prashanth.

Khushi, who learnt most of her early golf at the Ram Bagh Golf Club in Jaipur, shot a level par 72 riding on three birdies in the last four holes, during which she also had a bogey.

Her 72, the best of the day, got her to a total of 229, one better than the trio of amateur Smriti Bhargava (77), Shweta Mansingh (77) and overnight leader Seher Atwal (80), all of whom tied for second, one shot behind.

Long wait

Khushi, who was in the penultimate group finished on 229 and had to wait for the final group.

A birdie for any of the three – Smriti, Seher or Shweta who were playing together – would have sent the tournament into a play-off.

However, all three parred and stayed one behind to share the runner-up spot.

While Khushi had four birdies neither Smriti Bhargav nor Seher managed to find any on the final day.

Khushi, starting the day seven shots behind overnight leader Seher, had a clean front nine with one birdie and eight pars.

Two quick bogeys followed but the lead group behind her were having problems of their own.

Seher was two-over, Smriti was three-over for the front nine and Shweta was four-over.

That gave Khushi a chance to make a charge, but more setbacks in the form of three bogeys meant she had her task cut out over the last four holes.

Khushi got an unexpected chance as the lead group started dropping shots by the bushel.

Lost chances

Smriti went two-over for the back nine, Shweta three-over and Seher suffered with a six-over 42 on the home stretch.

In contrast, Khushi was just one-over and that helped her take the clubhouse lead. That margin stayed untouched as the final trio was unable to make any gains on the 18^th.

Gurgaon’s Shweta Mansingh, in the running for a maiden title after the second round, was in with a chance with four holes to go as she was in the final grouping.

However, three dropped shots saw her fall back into the tie for second on 230.

Overnight leader Seher Atwal had a disappointing final day as she did not have a single birdie.

Instead, she dropped two shots on the front nine and had two bogeys and two doubles on the back nine for a total of 8-over 80.

Amateur Jahnavi Prakhya was fifth, while Lakhmehar was sixth and Oviya Reddi seventh.

Saaniya Sharma, Neha Tripathi and Jyotsana Singh completed the top 10 in the final event of 2021.

Amandeep Drall, who skipped the last two weeks as she is playing in the Ladies European Tour’s Final Qualifying Stage in Spain won the Hero Order of Merit which has been combined for 2020 and 2021.

Vani Kapoor and Jahanvi Bakshi, also playing in Spain for LET berths, were second and third.

Also read: Seher leads by two into final day of Hero WPGT season