Aditi Ashok wins full status on Symetra Tour

December 04, 2016: Aditi Ashok deserves a big shout out and a warm round of applause. The enormously talented teenager played with guts and gumption to nearly earn a full card to the LPGA Tour for 2017. In the end she fell marginally short, but her mighty effort was good for full status on the Symetra Tour and a category 17 (provisional status) to the LPGA Tour.

The remarkable young golfer from India shot scores of 73-70-71-71-73 to remind us of her class and quality. The performance earns the Bengalorean license to pursue her craft on the Symetra Tour, a feeder to the LPGA with an annual calendar of over twenty events.

The top ten on the money list of the Symetra Tour earn a card to the LPGA for the next season.

Playing her ninth event in ten weeks, Aditi Ashok displayed great poise and fitness as she produced five disciplined rounds of golf at Daytona Beach in Florida in the final stage of LPGA Symetra Qualifying School event.

Aditi Ashok was 4-under through the 16^th hole of the fourth round – her score at the stage enough for an 18^th place on the leaderboard. But a bogey at the par-4 17^th dropped her outside the top 20 again.

Starting the fifth round at three under, Aditi Ashok recovered from a bogey at the par-4 sixth hole with a birdie at the par-5 sixth hole.

The par-3s took her down on the finishing stretch – as she conceded bogeys at the 12^th and 15^th holes of the Hills Course.

Aditi Ashok did recover with a second birdie of the round and 18^th of the week at the par-5 14^th but she was down to two under in T25.

Only twenty women are afforded category 12 full status on the LPGA Tour, leaving Aditi Ashok under pressure at the last two holes of the tournament.

The LPGA season consists of 35 events in 2017, with 13 of them set to be played outside North America. Considering Aditi has earned provisional status, there is a good chance she could earn an entry into these events, assuming that some of the players might not wish to travel afar.