GURGAON: City-based woman golfer Nalini Singh Siwach's
clinching of the Hero-
DLF GCC trophy, the fifth leg of the
Hero-WGAI Tour last week, and city-based veteran
golfer Smriti Mehra and Vani Kapoor, who was till recently
India's top amateur, getting tied for second position, has
once again showed that golf comes good to
Gurgaon women.
Siwach, whose home course is the
DLF Golf and Country,
overcame the nervousness of two double bogeys on the front
nine and held her nerve in the closing stages with one birdie
and five pars in the last six holes for a card of 75, Nalini
totalled 217, four clear of Smriti Mehra (80) and Vani
Kapoor (72), who were tied for second at 221. Neha Tripathi
(74) was fourth at 227, while Saaniya Sharma (80) slipped to
fifth at 229 and Meghna Bal (75) ended sixth at 232.
It was the season's first win for Nalini, who is coached by
Anitya Chand, also the coach for Kapoor. "It feels nice to
finally win after coming close many times and it becomes
even better because this is my home course," said an elated
Siwach, who was second last week. She was also third on two
earlier occasions. For Kapoor it was her second runner-up
finish and she has one win. In five events, there have been
four winners, with only Mehra winning twice. With Mehra dropping from the top with a horrendous run of
three bogeys followed by a quadruple bogey on the par-3
16th, Nalini just had to ensure she made no similar costly
mistakes. Smriti ended with an 80 to be in a tie for second
with Vani.
Talking about her plans, Siwach said, "I just want to remain
focused. The neck-and-neck competition and the pressure
we play under in these tours is an advantage. My aim is to
play in the European Tour."
Siwach said that while the number of women golf events has
risen, the number of girls taking up the sport is not going up.
"I am lucky that I am based in this city where I get to practise
in an international standard golf course like the DLF Golf
Course. In Gurgaon there is no lack of facilities with a lot of
surrounding golf courses but in other places there is which is
one reason why women who even %want to take up golf are
not able to," said Siwach.
"We need more girls not just playing golf but playing the
game at high levels. They need to understand %that they can
make a career out of it," she added.
Siwach said given that golf is an expensive game, there
should be more sponsors and scholarships for women in the
sport. "There must be several talented girls out there but
they do not have the means. I could take up the sport as my
father was in the Army and I had the opportunity but many
do not have that," she said.
"The government should come up with more golf courses
around the country. Infact it should start giving salaries to the players because ultimately if you don't make money out
%of it no one will come forward," she added.
Siwach said while they put in the same amount of hard work
as the men golfers but when it comes to prize money at the
end of the day, women still have some catching up to do.
"Compared to men, the prize money is much less. Though it
is coming up, we still want it to grow and for that you need a
lot of girls to come into golf," she said.
Vani Kapoor, 18, who is in the first year of her professional
golf., agreed.
"There need to be more women playing golf than the number
of events. More the players, better the money that will come
into the %sport and that's what works obviously," she said.
Kapoor, who was till recently the country's top amateur, says
Gurgaon as a location is perfect for her career with the best
of facilities for the sport available in the city. Kapoor added
that though she was expecting to win the event, DLF Golf
and Country being her home course, she is in no mood to get
demotivated. "You can't win everywhere so it is ok. I am not
playing bad golf but I am capable of much better golf. My
goal is to be number one on the tour," she added.
