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 by 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 by a tied-third place finish in the US Kids Golf European Championship in Scotland.