BENGALURU : India’s leading amateur female golfer, 15-year-old Bengalurean Avani Prashanth, has been selected for the Global Child Prodigy Award 2022. The teenage golfer has bagged multiple titles in the golfing world, and hopes to win more in the coming years.
“I was super excited when I found out about the award. It feels great to win it, because a lot of children get selected, and only a couple are nominated for it,” she told TNIE. The award names a hundred children across 48 categories and 68 countries. Avani has won the award for excellence in golf. In November, she had topped the Indian Golf Union (IGU) All-India Ladies Amateur Golf Championship, being one of the youngest to win both the stroke and match play tournaments.
“Now that I’m the number one amateur player in India, I’m planning on representing India in a lot of international tournaments,” she said. She is currently competing in the IGU All India Junior Boys and Girls Golf Championship 2021. “I have drawn up a list of golf tournaments overseas I want to play and win, and improve my world ranking to the top 50 by the end of next year. I also want to win a gold medal for India at the 2024 Paris Olympics and become the top golfer in the world,” she said, stating that she looked up to golfers like Tiger Woods and Nelly Korda.
The student of Greenwood High International School says her school had been very encouraging. “Our principal, D’Mello sir, doesn’t think twice when I need to take a day off for a tournament,” she said. Principal Aloysius D’Mello said, “Talents like Avani are rare, and it is our conviction that such children have to be encouraged to enable them to reach more milestones. We are very excited by Avani’s achievement and going by her abilities, we are confident that she will scale greater heights.”