Sime Darby LPGA: Impressive start for Aditi Ashok

October 08, 2015: Aditi Ashok showed nerves of steel on her debut round of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia with a fighting 70. The teenager from Bengaluru refused to blink despite bleeding two double bogeys on either side of her march around the beautiful course in Kuala Lumpur. The leaderboard was jam packed with as many as 21 golfers lying within four shots of each other. Alison Lee and Xi Yu Lin enjoy a one shot lead over a quartet of golfers, a group that includes Michelle Wie.

Ashok showed no fear in her first ever LPGA outing, getting to one under through a birdie at the 4th hole. She suffered a bit of a knock when she made six at the par-4 ninth hole, but recovered in spectacular fashion.

The young Indian shot a hat-trick of birdies from the 11th to push her score back into under par territory at 2-under. But she struck a poor tee shot at the par-3 15th hole to surrender the initiative a second time during her undulating round.

As she reached the final tee box at the par-4 18th, Aditi was even for the day. She played a courageous hand, attacking the pin to finish the day on her terms with a birdie at the final hole.

Lee got off to a promising start on Thursday with a first-round 6-under-65 to storm into a share of the lead with Xi Yu Lin after the first round of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia. Lee had just started settling in on Tour with top-10 performances in 4 out of 5 events leading up to the Solheim Cup.

“For sure, I think it can have a lot of the effect,” Wie said, speaking of the potential impact on Lee from her recent heroics in the Solheim Cup. “Same for Gerina [Piller], for a lot of the players. I always feel like even after 2013 Solheim Cup for me, that really turned things around,” Wie said. “You just have to play in such high pressure situations and try to pull shots that you usually don’t, so when you do actually pull them the confidence level raises.”

“I mean, not only did we win, but just to be able to be there and participate and be a part of something so great like that and to go into history with the biggest comeback ever, yeah, just be a part of it and experience all that definitely go down in the books. Definitely learned a lot from it. Especially seeing Gerina make that kind of putt, you know, gave me a lot of motivation to play well as well,” added Michelle, having gone through a similar experience in 2009 when she went 3-0-1 to help her team to victory.

Although Wie and Lee became tight over the course of the Solheim Cup two weeks ago and Wie would love to see her win, she just hopes it doesn’t come this week as Wie proved she’s got plans of her own in that regard Thursday with a first round 5-under-par 66. Wie’s back nine birdie barrage, five in six holes, was entirely similar to the one she went on two weeks ago in singles play at the Solheim Cup when she posted 8 birdies in 14 holes. Wie posted eight birdies again Thursday and is currently tied in third with Chella Choi, Shanshan Feng, and Yani Tseng.

“Yeah, since Evian it’s been feeling really good just health-wise. Not even game or anything,” Wie said. “Just feels so good to be out here and not thinking, Oh, this swing is going to hurt my hip and my ankle. Just going out there and being actually able to hit balls and hit golf shots and play the way that I know I can.”