Aditi Ashok slips up to finish tied-4th

PTI

Jersey City, June 5

Aditi Ashok logged her third successive top-five finish as finished tied-fourth at the Americas Cup. Aditi ended two shots behind the winner, Rose Zhang, who grabbed the title in her maiden professional event.

It was the first time since Beverly Hanson in 1951 that a player had won on her LPGA debut. Zhang shot 70-69-66-74 to be 9-under and beat Jennifer Kupcho (71-70-69-69) on the second playoff hole. Hae Ran Ryu was third, a stroke behind. Aditi, Japan’s Ayaka Furue (69) and South Korea’s Eun Hee Ji (71) were tied-fourth.

After just three bogeys over the first three days, Aditi dropped twice that number on the final day against four birdies. Aditi, who started the final day at 9-under, twice reached 10-under as she made two birdies (second and sixth holes) on either side of the bogey on the fourth hole. She was on course for a maiden win before floundering towards the end. In a nightmarish stretch, she made four bogeys in seven holes. A fight-back with back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th got her to 8-under but even at tied-third she was running out of holes. Another bogey on the last hole dropped her to 7-under.

Aditi now has a T-2, T-5 and T-4 in her last three events on the LPGA and she is already in the top-20 of the Road to CME Globe (Order of Merit).