Sizzling Aditi Ashok finishes 2nd in Saudi LET event

Aditi Ashok extended her red hot start on the Ladies European Tour season by producing arguably her biggest performance to finish second in the $5 million Saudi Ladies International at the Royal Greens Gold and Country Club on Sunday.

The 24-year-old, who led World No 1 Lydia Ko by two shots at the halfway mark after a superb 66, was engaged in the thrilling final round and was tied for the lead with the New Zealand star after back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th holes. Lydia though birdied the 17th hole for a one-shot win in the tournament with the largest purse in women’s golf other than the Majors and LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship.

Aditi (65 66 69 68) finished 20-under for the tournament with Lydia (64 69 66 68) 21-under, after their identical four-under final round. Aditi won a prizemoney of $450,000 with Lydia, in her first tournament after marriage, taking home $750,000.

The Bengaluru-based golfer had not won since 2017 when she began her LET season in great form. She won the tour’s opening event, the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, in the first week of February for her fourth victory on the LET. She came third the next week in the Lalla Meryam Cup tournament in Morocco.

The current form will boost hopes as she chases her first win on the LPGA. She finished last season 99th on the LPGA’s CME points with only the top 100 keeping their card.

Aditi, who narrowly missed an Olympic bronze after a fourth-place finish in the Tokyo Olympics, has improved her driving and swing speed in the off-season besides adding strength with gym work.

Sunday saw a thrilling back-and-forth battle. Aditi, two shots off the lead going into the final round, and Lydia – she started a shot behind Round 3 leader Lilia Vu -- both had an early bogey (fifth and second holes respectively).

But the Indian reeled off triple birdies – on the 7th, 8th and 9th -- to tie for the lead. Lydia birdied the 10th and 13th to go 2-up, only for Aditi, with father Ashok on the bag, birdie the 15th and 16th. Playoff or victory was two holes away, but Lydia, playing her first event of 2023, found a decisive birdie on the 17th.

Aditi extends her lead in the 2023 LET Order of Merit list. The performance will boost the stature of Indian women’s golf.

“It’s been great. I think 20-under-par on this golf course with the wind that we had on some of those days is a pretty good score,” Aditi told LET.

“I knew I needed to make a few birdies. I knew where I stood after nine when I saw the leaderboard. I didn’t do much until 14. Yesterday I birdied three of the last four, so I tried to think that it was possible today too. I ended up making birdie on two of the last four, which was good.”

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