Aditi Ashok best Indian at 13th, Pedersen wins Hero India Open

Amateur Aditi Ashok came up with a five-over 77 on the final day but finished as the best-Indian at tied 13th even as Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen notched her maiden Ladies European Tour title in a dramatic fashion at the Hero Women’s Indian Open golf on Sunday.

On a rather warm day, Aditi wilted with a round of 77 after 75 and 73 on the first two days to total nine-over 225 to finish one place better than what she did a year ago at the Hero Women’s Indian Open.

On the professional side, Vani Kapoor finished tied-20th, while Saaniya Sharma finished at 21-over in Tied-60th place and Smriti Mehra finished last at 62nd at 23-over 239. On a somewhat warm but perfect day for golf with no wind, the 19-year-old Pedersen who turned professional at the start of this year after a stellar amateur career, backed off twice before her final bogey putt from less than three feet on the final hole. Her first putt from 10-feet for par went three feet past the cup.

Pedersen received the glittering Hero Women’s Indian Open trophy from Pawan Munjal, Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of Hero MotoCorp and she also bagged a USD 60,000 cheque. Pedersen carded 73 for the final round and her total of even par 216 meant not a single player in the field was in red colours after three rounds.

There was a three-way tie for second with American Cheyenne Woods (71), Denmark’s Malene Jorgensen (72) and Becky Morgan (73) all finishing at one-over 217.

England’s Liz Young (72) was sole fifth at two-over 218, while Italian Giulia Sergas, one of the few to birdie the 18th she however had three bogeys in a row before that carded 73 and ended sixth at four-over 220.

Vani seemed to have finally come to terms with home club as she was one-under through 16 holes, before disaster struck.

She bogeyed the tough 18 and worse was the triple bogey on the closing 18th and that loss of four shots in two holes saw her drop to 75 for the day and 11-over for the week and finish Tied-20th. Aditi, normally quite steady, made some uncharacteristic errors and paid the price as she double bogeyed the par-5 fourth immediately after dropping a shot on par-3 third.