Tokyo Olympics 2020: At one of most exclusive golf clubs, Aditi Ashok joins India’s ‘heartbreak club’

The Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. With only around 1,200 members, it only started allowing women as full members in 2018. At this exclusive golf club where then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe played with former US President Donald Trump in 2017, India’s Aditi Ashok, on Saturday, entered a select club of a different kind: the one reserved for India’s fourth place Olympians. Everyone from India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra to track and field legends such as Milkha Singh and PT Usha have been part of this ‘heartbreak club’. The Indian women’s hockey team, who punched above their weights, entered this club on Friday, after losing to Great Britain. On Saturday, it was young Aditi’s turn to walk in through the doors, after coming agonisingly close to winning a bronze medal at the women’s golf event at the Tokyo Olympics, finishing behind Nelly Korda, Inami Mone and Lydia Ko . On being told by journalists about the club, she said: “I didn’t know that I’ve joined a club which you don’t want to join as an athlete… I knew that in a regular tournament whether you finish second or fourth it really doesn’t matter. No one cares. But like at this Olympic event you need to be in the top 3. I didn’t leave anything out there, I think I gave it my hundred percent, but, yeah, fourth at an Olympics where they give out three medals kind of sucks.”

But the 23-year-old was also acutely aware of the importance of a woman golfer finishing fourth at the Olympics. “I think it’s good, just even a top 5 or top 10 finish at an Olympics is really good. Because you know that sport or that person had a chance to win a medal. So just having more top finishes, even if it’s not exactly a podium finish, will maybe bring eyes to the sport and more support, more kids pick up more, whatever, that helps grow the game.” She went on to add: “When I started golf, I never dreamt of being or contending at the Olympics, golf wasn’t even an Olympic sport. So sometimes you just pick it up and work hard and have fun every day and sometimes you get here.”