It might have been a season of growing up for Gurbani Singh, but the Delhi girl likes to play her age once off the golf course. The Delhi girl spent her Sunday in winning the All-India Ladies Amateur Championship in Kolkata — at 13 years and three months, the youngest winner in 92 years of the tournament. On Monday, barely an hour into making it back to home in Delhi, the self-confessed TV and movie buff had planted herself firmly in front of the television.

Gurbani beat Noida’s Laverry Kumar two-up for the title, after conceding an early lead, she kept her nerves at just the right moment to take the title.

“I was three-up after 18 holes, went down to two-up by the 32nd, and by the 34th, after I made some mistakes, we were all square,” Gurbani told Sportline on Monday. “At that time I was a little nervous, but the very next hole changed it all.”

Laverry pulled out her driver in trying to attack the par-four 17th at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, but landed on the slope of the water hazard. Gurbani played it safe, playing out a par as her opponent bogeyed. One-up going to the last tee box, Gurbani then had a five-foot birdie putt, while Laverry had a putt for par, and the older girl chose to concede the hole.

She had earlier beaten Mita Galande, Shweta Galande, and Vani Kapoor on her way to the final match, all older, more experienced. It is a seemingly daunting task, but one that doesn’t bother the Delhi Golf Club girl. “We play each other all the time. I regularly practise with most of them, so I never feel anything of that sort,” Gurbani says.

But for the class VII student at Vasant Valley School, for whom nerves would often turn out to be tough to handle, the finish to the season has seen her get over exactly that, getting her two titles in the process. Gurbani finished second at her home tournament, the Northern India amateur late November, but it’s the eastern swing that has been sunny. In December, she won her first amateur title, a four-shot at the Eastern India. Surely, Kolkata’s a lucky place for the Delhi girl. “The Eastern India was at the other Kolkata course (Tollygunge) so it’s good to have won at both the courses there,” she says.

Gurbani also finished second in the strokeplay event at the All-India, this time Laverry edging her. The two were tied at 149 gross in the strokeplay, and Laverry won the second playoff hole.

Hard-earned break
It’s time for a short break, having finished the season half a point back from leader Gauri Monga on the overall circuit list, but Gurbani will be back rubbing shoulders with competition much stronger, the Asian Tour Indian Open in March.

“I hadn’t done very well there last year, I’ll want to better that this time around,” she says.