DAYTONA BEACH – For Aditi Ashok, this is as good as it gets.
Ashok is one of 156 women in the field at the final stage of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament this week in Daytona Beach, hoping to realize a lifelong dream of joining the LPGA Tour. While she hasn’t had long to dream, Ashok is just 18-years-old, she considers the Tour the benchmark by which she gauges her abilities against the world’s most preeminent players and hopes to play alongside them in 2017 if she can earn her card this week at LPGA International.
“Ever since I was a kid, obviously I wanted to play professional golf for a living. It was so much fun, I knew I could do this my whole life and LPGA is where the best players are,” Ashok told LPGA.com following her Wednesday practice round. “It’s always great to play with LPGA players because that’s been my goal since my childhood, to be a pro on the LPGA and compete there every week.”
While Ashok’s path in golf isn’t unique - climbing the ranks through junior and amateur golf - where her journey began is quite rare.
Ashok grew up in India where cricket, not golf, is the most popular sport. When she won the Ladies British Amateur and Ladies European Tour’s qualifying tournament in 2015 at the age of 17, she became the first from India to win either event and the first from her country to take up membership on the LET. She once again became the flag bearer for her country in August when she represented India at the Olympic games in Rio as the youngest player in the field. She opened with rounds of 68 – 68 to vault to the top of the leaderboard before struggling in the weekend’s windy conditions to finish 41st for the week.
“It’s something to watch a player on TV and it’s something to play right next to them and I think that’s what the Olympics sort of gave me, because I played with pretty much the best players in the whole world and that was really good competing knowing Inbee Park is playing in the same field and won a medal,” Ashok said. “It wasn’t my best week, but I learned a lot and obviously the experience was really huge. I mean I’m only 18. I got to represent my country and play in the Olympics.”
The confidence Ashok took away from Rio jumpstarted the back half of Ashok’s season on the LET where she posted four top-10s in her next five starts. Then in October, Ashok broke through at the Hero Women’s Indian Open for her first win on the LET and backed that up with another victory in her next start at last week’s Qatar Ladies Open, giving Ashok yet another boost heading to Daytona.
“Once you get that win you know your best can be a win any week,” Ashok said. “Having two wins and coming into final stage is you know, it’s better than I feel, it’s better than doing nothing and coming into final stage. I have more confidence.”
Should Ashok earn her card for the 2017 season, she still plans to split her time between the LPGA and LET and continue playing in her home event where she’s played half a dozen times. But she is aware of the travel and long distance commute involved, knowing a 15 hour flight would be tough to manage on a weekly basis. But’s a problem Ashok will be happy to solve.
“It would mean a lot to me, obviously,” Ashok said about earning her card. “A lot of players work for it their whole life and some players are on Tour and they come to q-school like me. I’m just 18, it’s my first time and obviously people who have played well all year on Epson, but who finished maybe just outside the top-10. So there’s a lot of good players out here so to be able to be in the top in the cream of such good players would be great and to get a chance to play with the world’s bet would be really amazing and I hope I can just do that this week.”
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