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Anika tied sixth at two-under
Missed putts meant the 17-year-old couldn’t capitalise on good iron-play
It really was a masterclass of iron-play by Anika Varma. After birdies on the second and third holes, where she made long putts from 18 and 15 feet, she put on a display of approach shots that was straight out of the coaching manual.
On sixth hole, she was left with a five-footer for birdie. On the seventh, it was even closer. On the eight, the ball skidded to a stop a foot from the hole as if someone applied a hard break on it. Ninth was probably the worst shot in the stretch, just because it was the only one outside the five-foot radius, but no more than nine feet. And on the long par-5 10th, her birdie attempt was from five feet again.
A very solid putter on most days, the only one Varma could convert was the eighth. It was just one of those days. What could have been a super low round, turned into a two-under-par 70, which saw her finish at tied sixth place on nine-under-par 207 at the end of the third round of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) championship in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
You could have handed the putter to a sage, and he probably would have snapped it in two. But the 17-year-old handled the situation with amazing grace and a remarkable attitude. Even as she kept missing her putts, Varma kept smiling and chatting with her Australian playing partner, Cassie Porter.
“It was a very frustrating round. I was on top of my game in the front nine, like all my wedges, all my approach shots, everything was on point. I just wasn’t feeling my putts…they were all very makeable putts, and you obviously can miss a few. But it just gets very frustrating when you miss all of them,” said Varma, who finished fifth as a 15-year-old at the 2019 Hero Women’s Indian Open.
“I could have gone so low. And that probably got into my head. I let it loose on the last few holes with my hitting. I did a really good job of maintaining pars. I didn't give up, and I am very proud of that.
“And I only missed my birdie putts. I made all my par putts.”
Asked if she had time to analyse what was going wrong with her putting, Varma said: “Honestly, there’s no point in analysing it at this moment. I’m here to play and that’s what I want to do. I know my coach and I will work on it when I get back if there is anything. But I know it has nothing to do with my stroke, because if it was, I would not have made all my par putts as well.”
Varma said there was no point in getting upset on the golf course and ruin the round.
“Honestly it's just golf. If I want to do this professionally, I have to take it in, the good and the bad.”
“There's no point in overanalysing it. I learned a really good thing some time ago…you should not spend more than 10 minutes thinking or crying about your round. Do whatever you want to, but you just have 10 minutes for it. There's no point in thinking because the more you think about it, the worse condition you would be in for your future tournaments.
“I think it's so important to just always stay happy on the golf course because otherwise you're not going to love this game. I love the sport and just playing it is enough for me. It doesn't matter if it’s a good round or a bad round.”
Varma trails leader Natthakritta Vongtaveelap by six shots. The long-hitting Thai continued to dominate the championship and opened up a three-shot lead at the top with a brilliant birdie-eagle finish.
Among other Indian players, Natalii Gupta (69), who is Dubai born and nominated for the tournament by the Emirates Golf Federation (EGF), was in tied 16th place at four-under par. Bengaluru’s Avani Prashanth hit a third consecutive one-under par 71. Sifat Sagoo (72) and Kriti Chowhan (73) were tied 27th and 41st respectively at one-under 215 and three-over 219 respectively.
The WAAP champion secures guaranteed entries in the AIG Women’s Open and The Amundi Evian Championship (both major championships), the Hana Bank Championship in Korea, as well as an invitation to play in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
