Aditi tops in strokeplay
Aditi Ashok
Bengaluru prodigy Aditi Ashok shrugged off her opponents with a three-under 66 to clinch the Billoo Sethi Trophy for the strokeplay segment of the Usha All India Ladies Amateur golf championships in Kolkata on Wednesday.
The 15-year-old, bidding to retain her national title and also top the Order of Merit, was in an ominous form as she closed with three birdies in last four holes to have a 36-hole total of one-over 139.
Overnight leader Millie Saroha could not better her opening day’s score of 70 and signed off with a 73, for a two-day aggregate of 143.
Gursimar Badwal (75-72) was third at 147, while Ridhima Dilawari (75-75) and Gurbani Singh (74-76) shared fourth place.
Aditi, who struggled in the opening round (73), opened with a bogey. But she steadied herself with birdies on the sixth and seventh.
A bogey on 10th though set her back, as she was then even par for the day.
But with Millie, her playing partner, going three-over for the front stretch, the two players were at level.
On the back nine, Aditi birdied the 15th, 16th and 18th, while Millie managed a birdie only on the closing 18th allowing Aditi to edge ahead.
Aditi, who finished as the top Indian at tied 10th in the recntly-concluded Women’s Indian Open, will now be fancy her chances in the main matchplay event.
The top-16 will move into the matchplay segment of the championship. All the leading players qualified for this part, though Anisha Padukone had to beat Vidushi Sinha in a sudden death play-off hole to make the top 16.
Anisha might have prevailed in the sudden-death, but she will have a tough task ahead as her first round opponent will be Aditi, while Millie meets Shruti Naik.
First-round matches: Aditi Ashok vs Anisha Padukone; Millie Saroha vs Shruti Naik; Gursimar Badwal vs Vrishali Sinha; Ridhima Dilawari vs Nikita Arjun; Gurbani Singh vs Ankita Kedlaya; Astha Madan vs Jaipreet Ghuman; Tvesa Malik vs Raksha Phadke; Seher Atwal vs Amandeep Drall
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