Golf: Indian golfer Aditi Ashok wins Kenya Ladies Open

Prolific Indian golfer Aditi Ashok made a fairy-tale start of the season as she clinched the Magical Kenya Ladies Open on Sunday. The Indian golfer continued her dominating show on the Ladies European Tour as she sailed through with a nine-shot.

The two-time Olympian only plays on the Ladies PGA, but is yet to get into full swing. The 24-year-old young prodigy ended her long drought as she last won in Abu Dhabi in November 2017. Her first two titles came in successive starts – at the Hero Women’s Indian Open and then the following week in Qatar Ladies Open.

This win is also a redemption for her as she came too close to winning the same title in 2019, but ended as runner-up. Notably, Aditi had her father on the bag, shot rounds of 67-70-69-74 and totalled 12-under 280 at the Par-73 Vipingo Ridge.

“It was good to have my dad on the bag, three of my wins have been with him caddying, but not just him there’s my mum (Maheshwari) back home and I have worked a lot with my coach and my fitness team,” Aditi added.

Interestingly, Aditi’s father was on the bag at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and then she had her mother at the Tokyo Olympics. She finished the event nine shots ahead of Alice Hewson of England (72), who finished birdie-birdie, and Thai teen April Angurasaranee (77).

“All of us have put in a lot of work over two months just to get back to my original strength level and this is the first week I have felt like I have been back to where I was a couple of years ago which is pretty good,” she added. Her next goal is to get a win on the Ladies PGA, where she has had Top-10s.