Aditi Ashok is back for another crack at the Olympics with Diksha Dagar

Three years ago, Aditi Ashok was on the verge of creating history. She was in medal contention in Tokyo before carding a 3-under 68 in the final round to finish 15-under, just one shot off the medal places. She finished in the cruellest of all places at the Olympic Games – the fourth place.

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Yet, it was a week when Aditi was the toast of the golf world. Hailing from a country that had no legacy in women’s golf, she had fans in her sport spellbound. Aditi’s X (then called Twitter) account grew 204% during the Olympics, and her Instagram following grew by 873%.

Everybody in the golf world wanted to know ‘Who was Aditi?” and many in India wanted to know, ‘ What was golf ’.

Single-handedly she made golf well known in India. Yet, there was no medal to show, only a fourth place. But even the Prime Minister of the country appreciated her and called her up.

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Now playing her third Olympic Games, Aditi does not often talk about that ‘near-miss’ except that she gave it all but it was not to be.

A girl with a mature head on her shoulders, she has played more than 30 Majors, but never figured in Top-10. She is just 26, but has five Ladies European Tour wins, the first of which came at home in the Hero Women’s Indian Open. She has been on the LPGA since 2017, but never won a tournament. Yet, she knows her time will come.

Aditi’s teammate will be Diksha Dagar, another amazing athlete. Born with a hearing disability, she won a gold at Deaflympics (Olympics for the deaf) and then made the Olympic shortlist at the last moment in 2020. She made it with lots to spare in 2024.

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Travelling with her family in Paris, Diksha was in the car, when it met with an accident . She and her father, Col Narendar Dagar, escaped unhurt. Her brother picked minor injuries, but Diksha’s mother hurt her back and had to be hospitalised, She is now recovering.

Diksha, though, has returned to the course, practicing for the Olympic Games golf competition.

Both Aditi and Diksha will be in comfortable territory with their respective fathers on the bag as their caddies.

Aditi tees off with Gaby Lopez (Mexico) and Esther Henseleit (Germany) at 9:22am local time (12:52pm IST) while Diksha plays with Wei-Ling Hsu (Chinese Taipei) and Emma Spitz (Austria) from 10:55am (2:25pm IST). The women’s competition runs from Wednesday to Saturday.

Fifteen of the 60 players in the field for women’s Olympic golf competition have played all three Games since the sport returned to the programme in 2016. Aditi Ashok is one of them.

Aditi is coming off a tie for 22nd at the LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic that ended this past Sunday. She played four weeks in row since the Amundi Evian and this is her fifth week on the trot.

Aditi had her father, Ashok, on bag in 2016 and then it was her mother, Maheshwari, caddying for her in Tokyo. Her father, who has been with her on the LPGA most of the time, will be doing the duty again in Paris.

In Tokyo, Nelly Korda (United States) won the gold, while Mone Inami (Japan) beat Lydia Ko (New Zealand) for the silver medal with a two-putt par on the first extra hole. Ko got the bronze and India’s Aditi ended a heart-breaking fourth.

At Rio 2016, Inbee Park (South Korea) won the gold, while Lydia Ko took the silver and Shanshan Feng (China) was the bronze medallist.

At Tokyo Lydia became the first player to have medalled twice and is now looking for a third one and a first gold.

Prior to 2016, women’s golf was contested in the Olympics twice in the early 1900s (1900 and 1904).