Women's Indian Open 2008

Posted by 4moles Editorial Desk 13 Aug 08'

Pornanong Phatlum, the winner of DLF Indian Women's golf

The second edition of the DLF Indian Women's Open got underway at the DLF Golf & Country Club amidst high hopes of an Indian winner. A lot had transpired in the preceding months to substantiate this newfound belief in Indian golfers. Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia had blazed the greens at the Delhi Golf Club to lift the inaugural Indian Masters trophy. Arjun Atwal had won in the Maybank Malaysian Open to signal his comeback after a disappointing run. Jeev Milkha Singh had narrowly missed chances -- twice -- to etch his name in gold after falling prey to last-hole shots at Indonesia and the Ballantine's Championship in South Korea.

Given this history, it was but natural for the majority to expect an Indian to triumph at the 1.2 million dollar event. However, it was a demure 18-year-old girl from Chiang Mai in Thailand who stole the honours and launched herself into the international golfing spotlight. Pornanong Phatlum had arrived . . . and with a bang.

Phatlum's dominance was underlined by the fact that she was the only player to aggregate a sub-par score. Her tally of four-under 212 won her a cheque of $18,000. Wei Yun Jye of Chinese Taipei and Yuki Sakurai of Japan, shared the second place at even par 216 . . . a good four strokes behind the winner.

With this win, the Thai girl recorded her second win in two events on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) in 2008, having won the Thailand Open earlier. In 2006, she had also won the Hong Kong Ladies Masters, but she had been unable to collect the cheque as she was an amateur back then. Her win at the Thailand Ladies Open in 2007 got her on track as a professional and she just went from strength-to-strength thereafter.

It was consistent rather than spectacular play that ensured a win for Phatlum. On the final day, the Thai dropped a shot on the second, but carded a series of pars till the 17th, where she made her lone birdie. A par on the 18th ensured that she finished even for the day.

The day was not devoid of drama. For a while it looked like China's Wang Chun would pose a serious challenge to the Thai girl. Post Phatlum's bogey on the second, the Chinese birdied the seventh to join Phatlum atop the leaderboard. Back to back bogeys soon after, however undid all the good work for Chun.

Japan's Yuki Sakurai too flattered only to deceive. If a birdie on the eighth raised hopes of a tight finish, a dropped shot on the very next hole paired her with Wang. The Japanese player then courted disaster on the par-3 11th hole and shut herself out from the match.

Tied fourth at one-over 217 were World Cupper Wang Chun from China and Korea's Nam Min Ji.

India's Simi Mehra finished tied sixth position and recorded the best finish for an Indian player at two-over 218. It was her second successive top-10 finish on the LAGT. Sharing the sixth place with her was Chinese Taipei amateur Hsien Yu-Ling.

Irina Brar - Ready to tee off

We are a team!

For the Indians, the flag was held by youngster Tanya Wadhwa, who finished tied 19th with an overall ten-over 226. Noteworthy to mention that Wadhwa had also finished best among the Indian players in the Ladies European Tour event in Bengaluru, in November last year.

Following close on Wadhwa's heels was Sharmila Nicollet, another promising youngster. The girl from Bengaluru tallied 14-over 230 for the tournament to finish in tied 26th position.Another surprising element of the tournament was the number of holes-in-one. There were three in all! While it was Shih Huei-Ju of Chinese Taipei who made the ace on Day one, the second day saw her room-mate and fellow player, Chen Kuan-Pei follow her lead. Japan's Satoko Hasegawa became the third player to register a hole-in-one at the DLF Women's Indian Open. All three golfers shared the Rs 50,000 prize money that was allotted for hole-in-one.