Aditi Ashok secures maiden top-10 rank after finishing tied eighth at Marathon Classic

Sylvania: India’s Aditi Ashok registered her first top-10 place on the LPGA Tour as she finished a fine tied eighth at the Marathon Classic. [caption id=“attachment_3745259” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Aditi Ashok. Image courtesy: Twitter/@LPGA[/caption] The 19-year-old Aditi, playing her rookie season, bettered her previous best of tied 25th achieved at NW Arkansas Championships last month. Aditi, who began the third day at tied third and was in contention for her maiden LPGA title was unable to find as many fairways as she did on the first three days. Finding only 50 percent of the fairways, she also needed 30 putts, the most for her during the entire week. After rounds of 65-68-68 she finished the week with an even par 71 and a total of 12-under 272. Her tied eighth place fetched her a cheque of $33,745 her biggest earning on LPGA this season. Aditi birdied third and ninth holes and bogeyed the first and 12th. The two-time winner on Ladies European Tour with successes at Hero Women’s Indian Open and Qatar Ladies, Aditi is now 69th on the LPGA rankings and no 93 in the world. In-Kyung Kim, who was two strokes behind 18-year-old Nelly Korda entering the round, birdied six of the first nine holes and finished with an eight-under 63 for a four-stroke victory over Lexi Thompson. In-Kyung Kim won her second title of the season as she added the Marathon Classic to the ShopRite LPGA Classic. She fired an eight-under-par 63, the best round of the day and tied best for the week. Kim took a four-shot victory. Kim was bogey-free yesterday, and went out in six-under-par 28. Lexi Thompson fired a five-under-par 66 and finished runner-up. It was her fifth second-place finish in 2017. The 36-hole leader Gerina Piller finished tied for third spot along with Peiyun Chien at 15-under. They both notched their best finishes of the year this week in Ohio. Sandra Changkija finished a shot further back at 14-under par and finished alone in fifth while Kim Kaufman and last week’ss US Women’s Open winner Sung Hyung Park finished at 13-under for tied sixth position. Five golfers finished at 12-under and rounded out the top 10 including Angela Stanford, Angel Yin, Brittany Lincicome, Aditi, and 54-hole leader Nelly Korda. The LPGA Tour heads to Europe next week for a two-week stretch including the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open and the fourth major of the year, the RICOH Women’s British Open.