November 23, 2016: After a week of rest to celebrate a much cherished Indian Open victory, Aditi Ashok showed no signs of easing up on her journey up the ladder of the Ladies European Tour. The 18 year old girl from Bengaluru posted a disciplined two under 70 to open her campaign in Doha on a positive note. The Indian is three off the pace set by Welshwoman Lydia Hall and Finn Noora Tamminen, both of whom shot a scintillating 67 on Wednesday.
Beginning at opposite ends of the Doha Golf Club, Lydia Hall and Noora Tamminen produced rounds that were remarkably similar. Lydia began on the first hole, making two birdies to the turn before adding three more on the home stretch. In contrast, Noora began on the 10th hole – making three birdies to the turn before adding two more on the stretch to the clubhouse.
Kylie Walker and Anna Nordqvist shot matching 68s to lie in joint third position. As many as ten women are bunched together behind Kylie and Anna, tied in fifth at 69.
On to Aditi Ashok, who started with a painful bogey at the very first hole. She returned to even par quickly though with a birdie at the 176 yard third hole.
The course extracted another shot off the young golfer at the par-4 sixth hole, but once again Aditi Ashok showed her poise by earning it right back at the next hole.
Having turned at an even 36, Aditi Ashok got down to business straight after the turn. The par-5 tenth hole is a full 65 yards shorter than the first, where she conceded a bogey. Aditi would allow no such lapse on the tenth as she sank her birdie putt to dip under par for the first time on Wednesday.
Aditi added another birdie at the par-4 16th hole to end the round well inside the top 20.
There are two other Indian golfers in the fray this week – Neha Tripathi and Vaishavi Sinha. The former will have her work cut out at the resumption of play, lying as she is just beneath the projected cut line.
Neha Tripathi shot two over 74 in the frist round – accounted for mainly with a damaging quadruple at the par-3 eighth hole. In an otherwise good round, Neha also made three birdies and conceded a bogey at the 335 yard fourth hole.
Vaishavi is lying T55, needing to avoid any slip up on Thursday. The top 60 and ties survive to play after the second round. Vaishavi had four bogeys and three birdies in her round of 73.
