Neha finds her groove

After her struggles in 2012, the youngster is back in form

Making New Year resolutions comes easy to everyone. From the very common ‘to quit smoking’ or ‘to quit drinking’ to ‘learning to play a musical instrument’, people have had varieties of them. For young golfer Neha Tripathi, there was only one thing on her mind -- regain her form and cement her status as one the bright talents on the women’s pro circuit.

After making a promising start to her professional career in 2010, the 21-year-old Kolkatan endured a horrendous 2012 where she failed to post a single victory. Everything she touched turned into dust as she often found herself way out of contention due to poor play and eroding confidence.

Like all determined sportspersons, she took the failures in her stride, spent hours studying on what went wrong in her game and then put in the hard yards on and off the course in fine-tuning her craft to completely take the current season by storm.In eight events so far, the bubbly Neha has triumphed on four occasions, including a hat-trick that she completed just nine days ago at the Eagleton Golf Resort to once again showcase her potential.

“Forget winning, I was just not there in the top-3 in any of the events,” said Neha of her 2012 travails. 

“I was just not there. My game was really, really bad. I played the Indonesian Open just before the Indian Open and I finished 14th which boosted my sagging confidence. I guess I played my best golf of the year there.

“However, things were back to square one at the Indian Open. I played badly and missed the cut. So, I decided to take the entire December off as I wanted to switch off and regroup myself. I started my Mission 2013 exactly on January 1. I started with my fitness first and simultaneously worked hard on my game too. I believe the hard work I put in at the start of the season has paid good dividends,” added Neha.

A decent badminton player who switched to golf at 11 years of age after watching her father play because she didn’t have to constantly keep moving, Neha made her first big statement at the Karnataka Golf Association in 2011. Although she had won a title in 2010 that gave her some satisfaction after missing the team for the Guangzhou Asian Games, the title triumph at KGA changed her. 

Behind the eight-ball for the better part of the event that featured top guns Sharmila Nicollet and Smriti Mehra as well as amateur Aditi Ashok in red-hot form, Neha kicked off the season-opening event on a high after prevailing in a play-off with Aditi. That victory sort of signalled the arrival of a new face and Neha lived up to it in decent fashion, finishing third in the Order of Merit before going out of bounds last year.

“We’ve (she and her coach Aditya Chand) not changed much with the swing but worked more with the pre-shot routine and increasing the focus while playing a shot,” said Neha of the work she put in at the start of the season. “My long game has always been my strong point and this year my short game too is coming good. I’ve also increased 10 yards on my driver which has helped me. I’ve become mentally stronger too, thanks to meditation and yoga.”

Having regained her rhythm and confidence, Neha, who idolises Tiger Woods, has now set her sights on the most prestigious professional golf tournament in the country for women -- the Indian Open -- before taking the plunge to the Ladies European Tour.

“Missing the Indian Open cut last year hurt me. I guess the venue for the Indian Open is either DGC or Jaypee Greens. DGC is one my favourite courses as I know if hit really well there, I could shoot a low score. If I’m able to maintain my form, I should be able to do better than Aditi (she finished tied eighth) last year.

“Yes, I would be playing the LET Q-School this year. My coach wanted me to go last year itself despite by poor form, for the sake of exposure, but I didn’t want to as it would’ve been a complete waste of money. However, this year I’m confident of doing well. I had actually been thinking playing a few events on the LET Access Series (the feeder tour to LET) but the scheduling has been the problem as the events coincide with WGAI. I just hope to maintain my form.”

Having rediscovered her touch and verve, it remains to be seen if Neha can take the next step at the end of the year. If she can, it will not only boost her confidence, but will also serve the women’s golf well.