Nov 11, 2016: The DLF Golf and Country Club proved to be a mighty test for the women on the Ladies European Tour. Christine Wolf, who lists skiing, mountain biking and rock climbing among her interests, seemed to put all those lessons together in her well composed 70 to share the lead with two time LET winners Anne-Lise Caudal and Florentyna Parker and Ursula Wikstrom. Aditi Ashok, cool as a cucumber, navigated some early jitters before making a forceful even par finish to slot herself right behind the leaders in the Hero Women’s Indian Open.
Friday was a day on which scoring wasn’t easy for most golfers. In fact most of the first round scorecards resembled a patchwork of colors. They came in varying hues underscoring the journey of these golfers, which turned out to be as undulating as the topography of this beautiful, yet wicked course.
Aditi Ashok has shown remarkable determination in recent times – our readers will remember her stoicism in Abu Dhabi, where she made a hat-trick of birdies at the death to survive the cut.
She was not nearly tested in that manner today, but she needed similar resilience to prevent the round from slipping away. Aditi made a positive start with a birdie on her second hole, the eleventh, but courted trouble soon after.
Bogeys at the 13th and 16th hurt her, but it was the par-4 14th that threatened to scar her card. Aditi Ashok sailed into the bushes with her tee shot, needing two shots from there to rescue herself. The brave 18 year old though possesses a steady hand and strong will.
Even though she settled for a double bogey six on that hole, Aditi did not allow the situation to affect her through the rest of the round. She embraced the conservatism needed on this course to produce seven straight pars through the fifth hole.
Running out of holes, Aditi Ashok switched gears to produce three straight birdies from the 6th to end the round on a high. She could have easily gone under par, if she hadn’t missed narrow opportunities on the fifth and the ninth.
Florentyna Parker also started on the back nine, with a couple of birdies at the 10th and 11th. The fact that she finished her round at that score underlines the lay of the land and test facing golfers this week.
Parker made birdies at 13 and 15 too, but there was a double bogey six that punctuated her stride, robbing any chance of gaining ground. Bogeys at 8 and 17 dropped Parker to even, but back to back birdies at the 8th and 9th helped her join a four way tie for the lead.
The star of the day had to be Christine Wolf. She was three over through her first four holes before producing a sensational run of birdies from the seventh to finish in the lead. It spoke of the outstanding character of this 27 year old golfer.
Ursual Wikstrom slipped to two over when she made a double bogey at the fourth hole. But she made two birdies on either side of her run to end the day at the top of the leaderboard.
Anne-Lise Caudal was the last of the leading warriors, joining the group late in the afternoon with a birdie near the finish line, on the par-4 seventh hole.
With the scores all bunched up at the top, the stage is set for an intriguing second round on Saturday. There are fifteen golfers within two shots of each other.
