Los Angeles, Apr 29 (PTI) Aditi Ashok added a gritty 1-under 70 to her opening round of 66 to grab the first halfway lead of her LPGA career at the JM Eagle LA Championship.
Playing at the Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, Aditi, who had a stunning run of four birdies in the first round of 66, shot 1-under 70 to move to 6-under 136 and was one shot clear of the second placed trio of Cheyenne Knight (68-69), Hannah Green (68-69) and Pernilla Lindberg (67-70), who were all at 5-under 137.
Aditi, who missed Olympic bronze medal by a whisker, looking for her maiden LPGA title, started the day on the par-4 10th and made three pars on her first three holes.
She then made birdie on the reachable par 5 13th and added another birdie on the 14th hole. The highlight of Aditi’s day came on the par-5, 15th when she holed a sand wedge from 85 yards for eagle.
“Actually, me and my dad (her caddie), we were talking, like going back and forth because it was kind of an in-between number, so we were almost trying to hit the next wedge because there’s water short of the green,” Aditi said at the end of the day.
Aditi, who won her fourth career Ladies European tour title at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, added, “But I decided to hit that one a little more full, and we got the number exactly right because it landed in the hole, so we’re like, okay, maybe it’s not a bad number.” She then cooled off making five bogeys and just two birdies on her way back to the clubhouse.
She admitted that she did have a couple of bad swings.
“I just know I made a couple bad swings, and you drop shots when you do that. Making no worse than bogey was good. I still feel like a couple other bogeys on the back nine, which was the front nine for me, that was not really ideal.
“I feel like I bogeyed 7 with a wedge. With wedge you’re looking at birdie, so that was I guess giving away a shot, but apart from that, it was good.” Three LPGA Tour winners are behind Aditi including major champions Pernilla Lindberg and Hannah Green and 2019 Ascendant Volunteers of America winner Cheyenne Knight.
Source: PTI News
