Aditi Ashok makes her fifth cut at the Evian Championship

Aditi Ashok in action at the Amundi Evian Championship in France. Image courtesy let.com.

By Rahul Banerji

A second steady round had Aditi Ashok midway up the leaderboard after day two of the Amundi Evian Championship at the Evian Resort Golf Club in the French Alps on Friday. 

At the top, England’s Lottie Woad produced a spectacular 7 under par 64 for the outright lead at the tournament’s halfway mark. 

The 22-year-old world number four started the day four strokes behind Aki Iwai of Japan but jumped into the lead on 11 under 131, one stroke ahead of the latter.

Making her 38th career major start, the most by any Indian, female of male, Aditi posted a second successive 1 under 70 to total 2 under 140 and a share of 38th place.

It was the fifth time she has made the cut in nine starts at Evian and was a display of resilience from the 28-year-old.

Despite a rocky start with bogeys on her first two holes, Aditi quickly found her rhythm to pick up shots on the seventh, 10th, 15th, and 16th holes.

Late blip

A late dropped shot on 17 pegged Aditi back, but the 2016 Indian Open winner is well placed to improve on her total on Moving Day.

The Bangalore golfer has one top-25 finish in her previous outings at Evian.

Woad picked up three shots on her outbound nine holes and though she would drop her lone bogey on hole 10, she reeled off a hat-trick of birdies immediately to climb into a share of the lead alongside Iwai.

A further two-stroke gain saw the Englishwoman into the solo lead with the Japanese snapping at her heels. 

LPGA winner Iwai, playing in the afternoon, was in the hunt for the leads for much of her round till a costly double-bogey dropped her back into second place.

Behind them was a classy and crowded chasing pack.

Heavyweight group

South Korea’s Haeran Ryu (68)  — reigning 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner — was third at 8 under alongside another Japanese player, Mao Saigo (68). 

Sharing fourth place on 6 under 136 were England’s Charley Hull, home favorite Nastasia Nadaud, Japan’s Miyu Yamashita, and Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand. 

A further eight players were tied for 10th place on 5 under 137 including France’s Perrine Delacour, Swedes Maja Stark and Anna Nordqvist, and 2022 Evian winner Brooke Henderson.

With the cut falling at level par 142, 66 players advanced to the final two rounds.

Nelly Korda of the US missed the cut on 1 over 143 (74-69) even as her male world no. 1 counterpart Scottie Scheffler was doing the same at the Genesis Scottish Open in North Berwick.

Also read: Solid third for Aditi in Belgium as Chacarra wins maiden LET title