Kiran's winning feeling

WhatsApp and the South African ladies tour has put the sunshine back into Kiran Matharu’s career after a decade of frustration.

But Mark Pinkett, the PGA Professional who has helped guide the 27-year-old’s return to the top of the leaderboard, insists: “We won’t be sitting back and enjoying this – there’s too much we want to achieve.”

Matharu is leading the Sunshine Ladies Tour after securing her maiden victory in the R400,000 Ladies Tshwane Open last Friday. The win comes hot on the heels of a third placed finish in her debut at the SuperSport Ladies Challenge.

She followed that great start by sharing the runner up spot in the SA Women’s Masters and closed out a top five finish in the SA Women’s Open, taking her winnings past R130,000.

Pinkett and Matharu have been working hard over the winter to ensure she capitalises on a late-season surge of form on the LET Access tour ahead of action on the Ladies European Tour later in the year.

And WhatsApp has proved vital in keeping the pair working together while Matharu is in the southern hemisphere sunshine and Pinkett is at his Cookridge Hall Golf Club base in Leeds.

He said: “Technology is incredible. We have been using WhatsApp non-stop while she has been practising between rounds and events. Kira’s father, Amarjit, has been filming her while she hits balls. I can see everything she is doing and make sure her swing works properly.

“But right now the key is not to take our foot off the gas. The win and the performances she has put in are fantastic. But this is one step and it is important we all keep pushing forward because there is no telling what she can achieve.

“So she has had a few days off after her win. Put the clubs away and relaxed. But now she will be back working hard, eager to get the next success.”

Matharu’s career has been littered with false starts going back more than a decade when, as a promising teenager, she burst on to the tour with a 15^th place finish in her very first event.

But Pinkett believe she is now on the road to fulfil her rich promise and finally end ten years of frustration and missed chances. He said: “Her swing is better, physically she is in much better shape and her practice sessions are far more productive.

“The long term plan was first of all to be competitive, then to get into contention for a good finish, and then win,” Pinkett explained. “She has done all of that over the past few weeks. Now the key is to keep the pressure on. There is still a long way to go.”