Aditi Ashok starts positively at Sime Darby LPGA tournament

Kuala Lumpur: Aditi Ashok on Thursday made a fine start which she unfortunately frittered away on the second nine at the Sime Darby LPGA tournament at Kuala Lumpur. Aditi, who has been logging a lot of miles, carded a first round of even par 71 and was lying T-30 alongside World No 1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand in the $2 million event. [caption id=“attachment_3076778” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Aditi Ashok. AFP[/caption] The week before last, Aditi played and finished Tied-eighth at the Xiamen International in China for her fourth Top-10 finish in a row on the Ladies European Tour. She then flew to Florida to play the second stage of the LPGA Qualifying, from where successfully earned a berth into the final stage to be held in December. Soon after she boarded another flight enroute back to Asia for Sime Darby at Kuala Lumpur. But the cheery 18-year-old Bengaluru golfer has been taking it all in the stride as she looks to make a place for herself in the elite of the game. She started her round with a birdie, but gave it away on the third. Back-to-back birdies on eighth and ninth saw her turn in one-under and things looked with two par-5s on the back nine. However, she dropped a shot on 11th and then double bogeyed par-4 13th and failed to birdie either of the two par-5s. Meanwhile, a bogey free round saw Amy Yang card an 8-under par 63 to finish top of the leader-board after the first round. The South Korean, who is yet to register a win on the LPGA Tour this year, is two strokes ahead of Marina Alex, who is in second place at 6-under par 65. Alex was accompanied in her group by Michelle Wie, who is one shot behind her, and tied in third place at 5-under par alongside Mo Martin, Feng Shanshan, Jenny Shin, Suzann Pettersen and Azahara Munoz.