Young Indian squad get good exposure at Singapore Ladies Masters

A three-strong Indian contingent invited to the inaugural $100,000 Singapore Ladies Masters came away with some useful exposure with Pranavi Urs finishing in a tie for 24th place and two-time national champion Avani Prashanth making the cut too for a shared 41st placing.

Singapore amateur Shannon Tan made it an event to remember, beating a field of 111 professionals mainly from the China LPGA Tour, with a 10-under 206 aggregate at the Laguna National course.

This was the first time that the CLPGA held an event outside of Mainland China.

On the final day, Pranavi shot 71 to aggregate 2 over 218 for three days while Avani had a closing 73. Seher Atwal, the third in the group did not make the 36-hole cut.

Shannon (68-72-66), playing in the third to last group, closed with a birdie for a 66 to total 10-under. Her 6 under final round included four birdies on the back nine including three in a row.

Playing one group behind Shannon, Chinese rookie Ji Yuai (67), led after 16 holes but faltered with a bogey on 17. She failed to birdie the last to force a play-off and ended second on 9 under 207. Thailand’s Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong (68-72-70) was third on 6 under 210.

Amateur Avani Prashanth, a special invitee to the pro event, who in the past has played alongside Shannon at the Sage Valley Invitational in US and at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2022, had rounds of 73-76-73 to total 6-over 222. Shannon and Avani also played a practice round this week.

Pranavi said, “This week I wasn’t the best in terms of how I was feeling physically, but I’m glad my coach was on the bag this week and we could work on the game a little bit. Overall, my game feels pretty good as I have been playing well over the last few weeks, getting my form back after not the best starts on the Epson Tour.”

Added Avani, “I am grateful for the special invite on the basis of my past US Kids performance and hats off to Shannon for the fine win.”

The 19-year-old Shannon, a first-year student at Texas Tech University, had earlier this season played with Rose Zhang, who won her first pro event on the LPGA Tour after being the world’s top-ranked amateur for long.

“Those experiences have helped me. Laguna with Peter Khee and Kevin Khee, and Lyn Yeo Aunty, giving me a spot this week. I was delighted to justify that with a win,” said Shannon, who this week had Laguna regular Dan Sleep as her caddie.