Rio de Janeiro: Two bogeys while on her way out dented Aditi Ashok’s otherwise flawless round as she carded her second successive round of 3-under 68, to aggregate 6-under 136 and slipped to tied 8th in the Olympics women golf here on Thursday. At the young age of 18, Aditi made her mark on Indian sport.
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She carded a five-over 76 in her fourth and final round to end with an overall score of seven-over 291.
Meanwhile, South Korean Inbee Park clinched the gold with a total score of 16-under 268 (66-66-70-66), while New Zealand teenage sensation Lydia Ko scored 11-under 273 (69-70-65-69) for the silver.
Her father stood by the golf bag and held back tears when Aditi Ashok teed off in the Olympics.
Aditi had qualified for the Olympics on the basis of the Olympic criteria of players being eligible based on the world rankings.
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Ashok is emerging on her biggest stage yet in women’s golf. She had struggled throughout the windy day, carding an eight-over 79 in the penultimate round. Even with her tough finish in Rio, Ashok hoped that the interest she created back home would draw more juniors to the game. “That’s what I’m hoping to do”. The only Indian to have played on LPGA before her has been Simi Mehra and when asked if that motivated her, she said, “Ever since I started golf, I’ve always wanted to be playing with the best in the world and competing at the highest level”. But I’m sure there has been a lot of attention on me, so women’s golf has become a bit popular. She was 17 and shot 23-under par.
