weapons. the us and mexico proposed deploying forces after fuel deliveries and food imports were blocked. now the rise of women's golf in india. i fell in love with putting when i was five and a half. my teachers weren't very happy that i would take so much leave from school to play tournaments. i was so thrilled and happy. i was lost in the moment, oh my god, is it real? we've had multiple indian winners in ten years. accessibility to golf. is a challenge and not just in india. today i would say a0—50% of the kids that i train are girls, it's a profession that parents are highly encouraging their children to go in. my goal is to win the olympics and a pga us open. it hasn't always been this way forfemale golfers in india. amateur status went hand—in—hand with picking up the sport. professionalism was unheard of in indian women's golf for the most part of the previous century. it finally came less than two decades ago and that was thanks to the vision and persistence of a select few. i saw a lot of golf which was traditional and i was determined to change the mindset. i needed to put in a lot more innovation, break away from the old thinking. earlier it used to be just participation by a few. now you have seen the mindset is changing, they are wanting to win and more number of them. think success within your own country, your own colleagues| also inspires you to continue driving and that is hugely. important to have those role i models for those players that are coming through. it is not clear when golf made its exact entry into india but a credible year would be 1829. that was the year when the royal calcutta golf club was established by the british. by 1891, the wife of the viceroy of british india and lady fraser had overseen the creation of a 9—hole course exclusively for the women. it was the calcutta ladies�* golf club. 1970 is a landmark year for indian women's golf. in 1970, after we had held the all—india ladies for so many years, we finally had a winner. she also won the nationals in tennis and swimming. my father, also a general in the army and the chief of staff, i used to be the caddy for them. i used to actually go and look for golf balls in the little river that used to flow, hoping that some player popped their golf balls in there. and i remember the time when i used to go home soaking wet and my dad used to say all right, you've come home and all you are going to get is... in the midst of all this was smriti mehra, who would be the torchbearer of indian womens professional golf. an amateur champion herself, smriti had big dreams and was willing to work for them. we had no teachers, my mother gave me a book. it was called the five fundamentals of golf and that is pretty much how i got on the lpga tour. i had never taken a golf lesson before i got on tour. my ego was just so big at that time because when i left india, she said, "i want you to fail so that when you come back, i can get you married." and i was like, "i will do everything in my power to make sure that you cry on the phone to call me back." that was the best thing she ever did. then came the inflection point in indian golf. smriti decided to play her part to make professional golf a reality in india. i love my country, to the point where i gave up my green card to come back. that is a massive sacrifice to make. i was playing full—time on the lpga and flying back seven times to india to play on the indian events. otherwise we would get zero media coverage. pretty much setting up the little office and whatever we could do, it was on a shoestring budget. we didn't have expensive marketing people, we didn't have executives to help. i was so passionate about doing, ijust wanted it done. simple. slowly but steadily, the numbers grew. the indian tour has between 40—50 active professionals. they are being chased by another generation, all amateurs. gen—x is ready. titles have been won, olympic glory was almost achieved. sponsors have begun to take interest in the globetrotting women trailblazers and at the heart of it all is the women's indian open, the showcase event held every year on the course just outside new delhi. covid has ruled out the last two editions of the tournament, but now it is back and ready to welcome the world. india was always an interesting market from the first time we went, over ten years ago now. we only had one member from india, but the wgai was extremely active about wanting to play the game and especially the women's game, and now we find that we have 12 members on the let with a lot of success. let is also playing a very vital role when it goes there and we have the hero women's open, so it has given a lot of visibility there in india and more number of girls especially are coming to this game. just playing in india, that was primarily for fun, but if you are looking at a career and as a profession, then the let has opened doors for all these girls and making a living and profession out of it. an interesting aspect of our collaboration with the wgai was to start a development programme. every year, we bring a group of 15, 20 young girls to the tournament and they get introduced to the players, they do clinics but also behind—the—scenes. they look at recording and different aspects of the operational side of the tournament too. so it is not only about getting players into the game but also into the industry. i volunteered for the indian open a few years after i started playing and i think that was the year that laura davies won. it was really special to be there, and you've heard so much about someone who is so legendary in the sport, and then for her to go and win that week, i had never seen anything like it, i had never seen a women's event of such a big scale happened before. it made me realise that it was something that was actually possible to do. since becoming a ladies�* european tour event in 2010, almost 100 home—grown players have taken part in the women's indian 0pen, but the standout performance came from aditi ashok in 2016. at 18 years of age, she conquered the field and she made the front page news all over the country. even as an amateur, i played when i was 13, and that gave me a picture of how good i was or how good i needed to be, and ifinished top 10 when i was 1a. and that at least gave me a benchmark for how good my game was and how much better i had to be to win on tour, and i think those things help when you are in india and there's not that many big tour events around you. it was important for me, i feel, to win that tournament because growing up i had played in that event and we had always had winners every single year, and i had neverseen an indian girl actually win that tournament, so just to be able to put my name on the trophy meant a lot. obviously every win is special, but that one, being an indian, means more. aditi has set the bar for indian women's golf, winning two more let titles and claiming a lpga tour card. week in, week out, she plays alongside the world's best women golfers. at the tokyo olympics, the indian public were treated to a masterclass as aditi climbed the leaderboard with some amazing putting. with a medal on the line she fell agonisingly short, missing the bronze medal by one stroke, as the world number one picked up the gold medal. it was a great week, obviously my second olympics. and i played really amazing. it was so good to see so many indians who had neverfollowed golf watch golf that one morning or those final two days, which was great. it was not what i expected because i was just trying to play a golf tournament, but it turned out to be a fun week. i was absolutely blown away by her putting. i don't think even to this day i have played with someone who has holed so many putts, and if they didn't go in, they looked like they were going to go it was phenomenal. i started playing golf when i was six years old with my brother. i was involved in many sports, like tennis, swimming, horseriding, and i really liked golf. yes, golf is the one for me. herfather, who is also her coach and caddy, is a colonel in the indian army, but he is totally dedicated to his daughter's golfing career. diksha was born hearing—impaired, but she won a silver medal at the deaf olympics in 2018 and upgraded that to a gold in 2022. she could have done in any of the activities that she takes on, but golf, since it is a more holistic. life in it, travel and a lot of other good things, so i also kind of channelled her into golf. of course that is so wonderful, you are representing your country at the level of olympics and deaf olympics. people are taking inspiration, and more number of them, i guess, you would be seeing in coming years playing as professionals on let and lpg. i was that hungry. i wanted to win the ladies european tour... i played very good golf and i happened to win. wow! isn't it too soon? that was my fourth professional start, and everyone was congratulating me, "wow, you have played good golf, that was amazing performance." mentoring these players is essential. the support network is crucial. so what assistance can be provided for the stars of tomorrow? the teenagers who are aiming for the top. this woman takes her role with the new generation very seriously. you must carry your own bags, you must think for yourself. otherwise, what happens is somebody else is playing the game for you? you develop fantastic perception by doing things yourself. 0bserve things. take your dog for a walk, go to the garden, see the trees, see the plants, do some gardening work, apply yourself in different areas, so that it is your mind that is developing and your mind that is thinking. no, that's a good shot! come on! that's a good one. no, there's still. a long way to go. you have to be hunger—driven to be able to compete and to be able to understand what it means to have, you know, hold a trophy in your hand and be able to contribute. i've seen over the years in girls playing on the professional golf tour, they paid for their colleges, they contributed to home life, they contributed in many different ways, which is very heartening, because these type of things are crucial. from playing in the sand in the bunker on their first visit to a golf course, sisters jahanvi and hitaashee bakshi have come a long way — winning eight titles between them on the domestic women's pro tour is a great stepping stone to europe and beyond. i chose golf because as young kids, we had a lot of energy to expend and, you know, not really many outlets. the first time we went to a golf course, it was army golf course, and we went there and it was so green and everything, and there were birds and squirrels and, you know, so many rabbits and dogs. we were fascinated by them in the beginning. we used to compete with each other, in all honesty, we didn't really think about as competitors, we were just sisters. we used to discuss the rounds, we used to tell each other, "hey, on the 14th hole, that was not the kind of shot we should have hit. we should do something else." there were no fights or rivals. after four hours, we were just sisters, but in those four hours, yes, we were players. our first event was a callaway one—day event. i do remember that, you know, our mother woke up early in the morning, she had to drive us, and i remember us waking up in pitch darkness and eating our breakfast in the car and then reaching there and so many bumps — i remember those moments, and the drive back home and we were eating and we were so tired, we passed out in the car seat. my best moment in golf would be the hong kong junior championships where i came first, and i was the only indian to ever come first. long—term goal to becoming world number one! funny story — hitaashee is actually left—handed, but she plays golf right—handed, because at that time, our parents had no idea that there is lefty golf sets also available. so we both started with one golf set that was righty. so, by default, she had to play righty! the bakshi sister has also a nine—year—old, 0jaswini saraswat, who finished second at the us kids golf world championships in 2022, never missed an opportunity to play a good course. it went very good in the world championship. there were 110 girls and ijust had to beat one more. i was happy because i beat at least 109 girls. and what would you like to do when you go to the world championship next time? i will win it and i will make india proud. tvesa malik is one of the indian stars on the ladies european tour right now. as a youngster, she was among those who volunteered for the national open. i think i was like ten when i started golf. we used to live in calcutta in india. my dad plays golf and my grandad used to play. so i think they were really keen for me and my sister to start. my dad loved that we played golf and he was the kind of... like, i think if i ever said i want to skip school to go and practise, he was happy to drop me and spend the whole day there and pick me up, and my mum would be, like, "no, you have to go to school." so it was a little bit different. very solid, really good golf swing and, mentally, i think she's good as well. she's just a lovely girl and i think she wants to do well, she's quite driven. i worked for a long time - with a girl called vani kapoor who's played on and off on let and done fairly ok. _ tvesa malik has worked with me for quite a few years. _ diksha dagar has been my students for a few years . when she was up—and—coming. the number one thing that i look for and i see that . in the girls who make it as the drive. _ the society that we come from is very different - that the society of the west, i and while this would be much more common for the parents of a boy to say that earlier, i i think it will be equally seen in the parents of girls. - there's no politics, there's nothing else involved. it's just on your own merits. if you're good enough and you play good, you get the reward of it. when i was nine, i actually visited the let event. when let first came to india, it was in bangalore, actually, an hour away from where i lived. so, yeah, that was the first time i actually saw women's golf, professional golf, and that was when i decided, you know, that's what i wanted to do. i really wanted to become one of the big stars, - i really wanted to perform well and win some more i let tournaments. i also want to play on lpg — that is my biggest dream. l aside from 0lympic success, having an indian female win a major would provide the ultimate uplift. legendary status awaits the first one to achieve it. but how realistic is that prospect? beating the world's elite is a major challenge. you think of the the population of india — i mean, just a fraction of them take up the game. i mean, they could end up being a dominant force. when i came out, there weren't any indian players, like, maybe one or two, but now there's quite a few out here, and obviously they're growing the game over there and it's becoming bigger, so i think it's just about time before we see a major winner from india. now, it's not unusual to see 55 or 50 girls, you know, - professional girls playing - a tournament locally in india. but i do believe that golf. is a sport where indians can excel at at the world stage, and golf is a sport where i we can have a major winner or an olympic medal. - it has been proved that becoming an indian female sporting icon can be life—changing. the last two years have shown superstar pv sindhu being named by forbes as the world's seventh—highest paid female athlete, with earnings of more than $7.2 million. in addition, boxer lovlina borgohain and weightlifter mirabai chanu have become household names after their medal successes at the tokyo olympics. sania mirza and cricketer mithali raj are all icons of their respective sports. overcoming challenges of a patriarchal society where opportunity often doesn't knock on the door for mostly talented women athletes. until the age of 12, i played with boys, so i was always a shorter hitter and i also had to make more up—and—downs so that, you know, it kind of complimented that i needed to do that and i enjoyed practising it, so that kind of became, i guess, a skill i worked on. there's a lot more that can be done to facilitate junior golfers and girls playing biggertournaments, notjust in india, but playing abroad as well, but, yeah, it's definitely better than it was when i was a junior, obviously. the indian 0pen has grown so much over ten years. when i go home and i see, you know, there's so many young girls who are so good now, we didn't have that so much when i was growing up. to see them already reaching this level is really amazing. access to more facilities would be something that could make it so much more accessible to so many more people, so i think that could make a big difference, definitely. for us, it's really important and one of our missions - as the ladies european tour is that any talented player l that wants to play professional golf can find a way to get - to the elite of the game, and specific to india, - having the ladies european tour event there, there is _ a significant portion- of the field that is allocated to the wji players, - they have the opportunity, by winning that tournament, they can automatically - become an let member. i would ideally like to see that players under 18 that want to pick up the game would have some time i during the week, that they can have access to golf courses, i reduced prices. for golf lessons. it's very important, l when you're starting in the game that you do get good tuition, so all- of that costs money, - equipment costs money. so, in countries where there is not a lot of golf, it's hard. - so, ideally, we can at leastl introduce them to the game when they're young. golf is a multinational, multibillion—dollar business where fortunes rise and fall with each swing and each putt. cheering it's a game that deserves to infiltrate each nation on the earth, and india is no exception. for the ladies european tour, to sanction the women's indian open in 2010 was a gamble, but the players took to the new challenge, and at the first event in 2010, one of the best players ever in women's golf to tee off played in india. laura davies took home the trophy. the stage was set for the next decade. to have that one opportunity in india definitely helped me growing up. i played it when i was 13, 1a, 15, 16, so as my evolution as a golfer, i could see — i could compare that with tour level golf one week a year. the same year that diksha dagar was only 15, we saw aditi win, and that inspired her to go on and continue — continue her career in golf and ended up being a tournament winner only after her fourth start on the ladies european tour. it was a very big deal for me, | and at the time, i was serious and i wanted to do well- because it's a big tournament happening in india. i was so happy. i remember doing an educational programme there one year to a load of girls aged sort of five to 18, and did a little 0&a session there, and they were all really keen and all of them wanted to be professional golfers on our circuit, or the lpga. it was my first win on tour after 18 years, which i'll never forget, obviously. but honestly, even though i won this, before that, it was probably one of my favourite places to go. when i went out there, maybe simi mehra may have been the only pro that i really knew that was indian. thailand didn't used to have any golfers. now they have great golfers. i think the potential- is non—ending — non—ending. and i look forward to the 25th year of the i women's indian open. i'll be still there, god willing. - my granddaughter is just two years old, so i hope - to make her into- a good golfer one day. i think it's just great to see golfjust spreading all over the world because i think it's a great game. it learns you about life, really. i mean, it's not fair and you need morale to play it. the game suits the indian also fairly well, though of course it's a physical game, you need to be there. but a lot of it is mental. indians have proved in various fields they are very good as far as the mental capacities are concerned. turning full circle, we go back to the very beginnings. why did golf beat so fast the hearts of these players? at the start, it wasn't the quest for money or fame. it was the challenge that encompasses all of us who love the sport. the quest for perfection, nailing that perfect drive, the hours upon hours of practice, the unseen craft that leads to the first stage of the tournament that really matters. women's golf in india has seen huge changes in the past 20 years, and we know that when the girls get higher, they mean business. i wanted to do every day or every week. whenever i had a tournament, i was really excited, and that is what motivated me. in a place like india, where it's not the most popular sport, there is cricket and there's so many other sports that are given so much more importance. it is a bit different, but i never really felt any disadvantage of playing golf. in fact, i thought we were quite lucky because we were such a small group and we got to experience so much. i was heading to the game because i had that feeling| of hunger, something i really wanted to win. _ then you forget about. everything and your head is completely into the golf. i'm always trying to hole every putt. i feel like if the ball is on the green, it can be holed. hello there. monday brought plenty of afternoon sunshine across england and wales and it was very mild for the time of year with temperatures reaching as high as 20 in london. that's 4 degrees above the october average. meanwhile, in scotland, an area of low pressure was with us all day, bringing cloudier weather and outbreaks of rain that struggled to clear away. now, what we're looking at over the next couple of days is this area of low pressure will move out of the way, and in its place, an area of high pressure will build in from the north. but because it's coming in from the north, it will have some colder air trapped in that — that reaches scotland. meanwhile, to the southwest, low pressure lurks. that's going to be flicking bands of rain across the uk over the next few days from the southwest. looking at the weather picture at the moment, it's quite quiet weather—wise. clearing skies for most of us and it's a much colder night as well, so temperatures starting off tuesday morning down into low single figures and, for some, i reckon there will be some mist and fog patches around, probably the worst of it across parts of wales, the midlands, east anglia and southern england. it'll take the first couple of hours before that mist and fog is cleared out of the way. then you can see the extent of the day's sunshine, just a few passing showers for 0rkney, shetland, clipping aberdeenshire, and there may well be a little bit of cloud just coming in across cornwall, threatening an odd spit of rain, but for most, it's dry. temperatures mild again — england and wales, 14—18 degrees, bit close to average for scotland and for northern ireland. heading into the middle part of the week, we see this area of rain extending in from the southwest. now, as the rain comes in on wednesday, it's going to come in kind of sporadically in bursts here and there. might stay dry across northeast england and dry for scotland, but you'll notice more cloud building in here, probably quite misty as well. cooler weather for scotland and the far northeast of england — 9—12 degrees is below average, but still mild further south, even with the rain moving in. now, for thursday, we've got a heavier band of rain that's going to push its way northwards followed by probably a mixture of sunny spells and showers. if anything, it will get a little bit milder again with temperatures up to 19 degrees in london. mild as well for northern ireland, but still relatively cool in scotland. friday, the low pressure is still with us, but it's getting closer. really, we'll see some showery bursts of rain extending northwards across the country, and some of those downpours could be quite heavy at times. that's your latest weather, bye—bye. welcome to bbc news, i'm ben boulos. our top stories. britain's prime minister liz truss admits mistakes were made on the day her new finance minister tears up her economic plan. i do want to accept responsibility and say sorry for mistakes that have been made. kevin katie take the stand to deny assaulting a teenage boy 30 years ago. —— kevin spacey. and one of the literary world's biggest prizes, the booker, is won by sri lankan author shahaan karunartilaka, who wrote about his country's civil war. i was writing a murder mystery and it just seemed that every sri lankan atrocity, we never deal with it,