Aditi, Diksha at Tied-14th after Round 2 of Olympic golf

Paris: Indian golfers Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar were at tied-14th in the 60-player field after two rounds at the Paris Olympics women’ golf competition here on Thursday.

Aditi played 1-under 71 after a first round 72 and Diksha was even at 72 after a first round 71. At 1-under each for 36 holes, the Indian duo was Tied-14 in the 60-player field, which has no cut.

Aditi had four birdies, all in succession from the sixth to the ninth against bogeys on the third, fifth and 12th. Diksha was 2-under with birdies on the Par-5 third and Par-3 11th and stayed 2-under till she came to the 18th, where she messed a third shot with a wedge and ended with a double.

Swiss star Morgane Metraux set the course alight with an 8-under 28 front nine with two eagles and four birdies.

The back nine, in contrast, had three bogeys and one birdie in a round of 66 that put her on top at 8-under after being 10-under at one stage with four holes left. She bogeyed the 15th and the 18th.

Kiwi Lydia Ko, attempting to become the first player to win medals in three successive Olympic Games since it returned to the programme in 2016, put herself right behind the top two.

Lydia added 67 to her 72 to be 5-under and two behind Yin bogey free Yin Ruoning (72-65) and three behind Metraux.

Aditi is convinced there is a low round lurking around on the final two days while Diksha Dagar planned to attack even more in the next two rounds.

Aditi said the course was gettable and a low round is possible.

“It is (to get low rounds). I think today I saw the scores, some players have shot really low rounds (Morgane Metraux had a 8-under 28 for front nine with two eagles).

So I know there’s a low round out there,” she said.

“I just have to go out there and shoot it. Usually third day is moving day, so just going with that mindset.”

On her second day, she said, “Those four birdies put me back in a good frame of mind, but obviously would have like to be more under par than 1-under.

It was a nice run from sixth to ninth and it had a big putt, too. (About 40 feet).

“I think the wind picked up and birdies were tough to come by (on the back nine). I only had two looks, the par-5s, the 14 and the 18.

Those were the ones where I had close looks and I missed a 6-footer

on 14.”