Asian Junior Masters 2024: Fighting fever and diarrhoea, Mohali’s Ojaswini Saraswat wins title in girls’ category D | Golf News
On Sunday, when Mohali’s 10-year-old Ojaswini Saraswat was competing in the Asian Junior Masters 2024 at Black Mountain Golf Club, Hua Hin, Thailand, the youngster was suffering from fever and diarrhoea. Saraswat fought back with her condition and carded a course record score of 25-under-par to win the title in the girls’ category D. Such was the youngster’s dominance that she made three eagles and sank 19 birdies over the three days at the course.
“I was having fever and diarrhoea on the second as well as the third day. But then the opening day score motivated me and I decided to play the next two rounds taking medications. The greens were playing fast there and light winds too made it challenging. Also, it was a three-part course so it made it a bit challenging too. I am glad that I could counter the conditions and win the title with a new course record,” said Saraswat while speaking with The Indian Express from Thailand.
The Mohali youngster, whose father Om Saraswat runs a construction business in Mohali, had started playing golf at the age of four years. With the Mohali Golf Range close to their home, a young Saraswat was taken for golf lessons under Arjuna awardee Harmeet Kahlon her mother and former badminton player Rakshita Saraswat. The youngster, who played in her first international tournament in 2020 in the form of Big 5 South Africa Open winning the title in her category, won eight titles on the Indian Golf Union Junior Feeder Tour in her category in 2021. Next year saw her finishing tied-second in her category in the US Kids Golf World Championships at Pinehurst, USA, followed a tied-third place finish in the US Kids Golf European Championship in Scotland.
“My parents took me to train at the Mohali golf range at the age of four and I was fascinated the idea of hitting the ball over a dance. Competing at the IGU tournaments and winning in sub-junior categories helped my confidence. Finishing tied second in the US Kids World Championships in 2022 was a learning experience at the challenging course at Pinehurst,” said the youngster, whose younger brother Ojasav Saraswat is also a national golfer.
Saraswat has been ranked on the top of leaderboard in her category on the IGU circuit and is eying a move to Category C on the IGU circuit in the coming years before moving to higher categories. The youngster hopes to turn professional one day and follow in the steps of Tokyo Olympics fourth-placed Indian golfer Aditi Ashok.
“I idolise four-time major winner Rory Mcllroy, five-time Ladies European Tour winner Aditi Ashok and Tokyo Olympics champion Nelly Korda. I am a huge fan of the way Mcllroy drives and Aditi Ashok’s putting. The way Aditi has played on the Ladies European Tour and became the youngest Indian golfer to play in all majors is an inspiration for me. I hope to play on the professional tour one day,” says the youngster.
While she takes lessons from Kahlon and Dronacharya awardee Jesse Grewal apart from international coach Lawrence Brotheridge, Saraswat has also been training under Amit Bhattacharjee, mental trainer of 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medall Abhinav Bindra. “We have been working on her mental strength and focus has been on precision and anger and stress management. Getting the small muscle coordination with dead man therapy has also been our goal. She can play for India in the Olympics one day with all the right support,” said Bhattacharjee.
