At Asian Games, Aditi is tied second, Lahiri shared ninth on Day 1

By Rahul Banerji

Team leaders Aditi Ashok and Anirban Lahiri made sure they were within striking distance of the top on day one of the golf competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Aditi shot a clean 5-under 66 to share second place while Lahiri (7 under 64) also second after 17 holes, double-bogeyed the last one and slipped into a share of ninth at the West Lake International Course.

Aditi was two shots behind the leader, former world number one Japanese amateur Saki Baba (65), and Lahiri trailed South Korean amateur Jang Yu Bin by four strokes.

In the team event that counts the day’s two best scores for each section (women and men), the Indian women held sole fifth place and the men were tied for the same spot alongside Hong Kong.

Of the other three in the men’s team, two-time Indian Open winner S.S.P. Chawrasia (67) was tied for 18th. Shubhankar Sharma (68) was T22 with six birdies and a double bogey and Khalin Joshi (70) was T32.

Mixed bag

Joshi had a sensational albatross on the par-5 fifth, and four birdies, but dropped two shots and a double through the day.

Apart from Aditi India’s other women players had modest rounds with Pranavi Urs at 1-under 71 and shared 17^th place, and amateur, Avani Prashanth (72) in a tie for 21s.

The women’s team with a 6 under aggregate were behind joint leaders China and Japan on 10-under 134, Thailand (8-under) in third and South Korea (7-under) in fourth place..

In the men’s event, Korean amateur, Jang stunned the field with an 11-under opening card that had 12 birdies and one bogey on a day of low scores with little wind and accessible greens.

India’s men, who last won a medal at the Asiad in Guangzhou, 2010 were 10 shots behind the fancied Korean, who have two PGA winners, Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im, in the ranks.

Lying second behind Jang was Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho who produced the round of his life with a 10-under 62.

Steady start

Aditi, who missed an Olympic medal by a stroke in Tokyo two years ago, began with a steady 67. She does not have her usual caddie, her father, as personal caddies are not allowed in Hangzhou.

Teeing off from the 10^th Aditi had seven pars to start with before she birdied twice before the turn including a holed approach.

She then added a third on her tenth hole to make it three in a row. She would add a further two birdies to stay right in the mix.

Alongside the Indian in tied second were world number 13 Lin Xiyu, Yin Ruoning and 143rd-ranked Liu Yu, all from China. and Thailand’s Yubol Arpichaya. 

Also read: Strong India squad sets out on hunt for Asiad golf medal haul