Aditi Ashok has won the Ladies European Tour (LET) 'Rookie of the Year' award after a stellar 2016 in which she became the first Indian to win two consecutive titles in her first year on the tour. She beat Nuria Iturrios of Spain comfortably to win the award.
After becoming the first Indian woman to represent the country in golf at the Rio Olympics, the 18-year-old from Bangalore won back-to-back titles at the Indian Open and the Qatar Ladies Open.
"Obviously there is a lot of attention, especially since the Olympics," Aditi said. "A lot of people want to write about me because I'm an Olympian, and not just part of women's golf. In that sense, I think women's golf is getting more popular in India. I think it's good and I just try and deal with it the best that I can.
"Even before the Olympics, I was playing in LET events and I did sort of okay, but it wasn't like it was of interest at that time. But obviously after I played in the Olympics, everyone wants to know what I was doing because "the Olympian who was leading after two days is now playing here". I think that made a difference and hopefully the interest continues to grow, and not just with me but with all the women golfers in India."
Aditi was impressive in her first round at the Olympics, but she dropped to tied-41st position at the end of the final round. Post-Rio, Aditi regularly got top 10 finishes before winning the two back-to-back titles at the year end.
Aditi is now looking forward to resting before returning for her 2017 season. "I've been playing a lot of events and been playing well through all of them," she said. "I think that's what's helping me. After this I'll have some off-time, so that's been good. I'm just looking forward to going home. Spending three, four weeks at home, practice. I'm actually getting a new driver and 3-wood from the new 917, so I'm looking forward to practising with those."