Aditi Ashok qualifies for British Open

July 26, 2016: Indian teenager Aditi Ashok forced her way into the British Open with yet another powerful performance. The winner of the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School in Morocco last December, revelled in the very warm conditions in Bedfordshire to post a brilliant round of 66. Her score was nine under par for the ladies’ course at John O’Gaunt Golf Club.

She leads 16 qualifiers for the Ricoh Women’s British Open Final Qualifying competition, starting at Woburn Golf Club on Thursday. Aditi is only the second Indian woman to qualify for the British Open after Smriti Mehra.

Seven birdies and an eagle fire Aditi ahead
Aditi, one of the youngest ever winners of the St Rule Trophy at St Andrews during her stellar amateur career, bogeyed her first hole today but then slipped into top gear with birdies at the long fifth and sixth, then the par-4 seventh to be out in two-under 36.

Aditi then collected more birdies at the 12th, long 13th, short 16th, long 17th, par-4 18th and an eagle 3 at the long 15th.

The Bangalore player headed the field of 85 by three strokes from Spain’s Marta Sanz and Annie Park (United States), joint second on 69.

Sanz spread seven birdies and one bogey over halves of 33 and 36.

Park, one of the later finishers, covered her last 10 holes in five under par and had a bag of seven birdies in all.

Curtis Cup heroine and winner at the weekend of the European individual women’s title, Bronte Law (Bramhall, Cheshire) was the only amateur to figure among the 16 qualifiers.

GB and I team-mates, Maria Dunne (Ireland) and England’s Meghan MacLaren and Alice Hewson failed to make it. The precise figure of 16 players – the exact qualifying total – shot three-under-par 72 and better.

But there was a play-off, involving the 10 who finished on 73, to decide the four alternates (reserves), needed to fill the gaps should any players drop out of the starting field at Woburn.

Alternate 1 – Maha Haddioui (Morocco)
Alternate 2 – Ayako Uehara (Japan)
Alternate 3 – Joana De Sa Pereira (Portugal)
Alternate 4 – Justine Dreher (France)