Boutier leads after day one in Paris as Diksha, Aditi start strongly

India’s Aditi Ashok tees off on the opening hole of the Olympic women’s golf competition at Le Golf National in Paris on Wednesday. Image courtesy LPGA/X.

By Rahul Banerji

But for the last two holes at Le Golf National on Wednesday, India would have counted for a brilliant start to the Olympic women’s golf competition.

Between them, Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar dropped four strokes at the end of their respective rounds but still were well placed on level par 72 and 1 under 71 respectively.

While Diksha was tied seventh after successive bogeys on holes 17 and 18, Aditi was in a share of 13^th place after she double-bogeyed at the last.

At the top of the order, Céline Boutier delighted the home crowds with an opening 7 under 65 that gave her a three-shot lead and the joint best in the competition since Ariya Jutanugarn’s 65 at Rio in 2016 and Madelene Sagstrom at Tokyo. 

Playing before big galleries on Wednesday, world no. 7 Boutier sank eight birdies against a lone bogey to make a dream start in her medal pursuit with South African Ashleigh Buhai three strokes adrift on 4 under 68.

Diksha was 3 under heading to the 17th tee but saw her approach fly wide and the chip stay on the shoulder of the green. On 18, she three-putted after opting to lay up and reach the par-5 hole in three.

Good run

“I started very good. I stayed in the fairway,” the 22-year-old said later who was the only bogey-free player in the field till her 17^th hole. “I found a lot of fairways today. The greens were very good, and when I had a birdie putt chance I made some putts.

“I was going very good (till) the 16th hole; unfortunately on the last hole I dropped two shots. I’m okay with 17. But on 18, it was same mistake, par 5, going on to the green and you are taking the birdie putt and I went aggressive.

“Can it be hard, sometimes it’s in your favour, and some days it is not.”

Aditi, who placed fourth in a bronze medal playoff in Tokyo with her mother Maheshwari on the bag, opened in Paris with a 72 that was dented by the double bogey on 18. The three-time Olympian though shrugged off the setback.

“I think it was a good day for me. It was tough initially with the wind and it’s tough to judge the yardages and manage the wind, too. I started off pretty good, actually.

“That set the round. Except for the last, I didn’t make many mistakes. Overall, a good day.

“On 18 I hit a bad drive. I hit a bad second shot. I hit a bad third shot. So not much good happened there. But I think I was just, you know, on the tee, I was trying to hit a good drive because I knew it was reachable.

Solid driving

“I think maybe that’s what — because apart from that drive, I think I hit almost every fairway today. I had a lay up and laid up in the right rough. From there it was tricky. 

“Good round… But also I think because I didn’t know a lot about the course, like the rough around certain parts of the green and how the rough was off certain fairways. I kind of kept it simple for the most part.

“Sometimes I feel like I was too defensive but I think with the way the course was set up today and the wind, that actually helped me because I was just making pars when I could have b3en trying for more.”

Boutier, who won her first major last year on home soil at the Amundi Evian Championship, dropped just a single shot on Wednesday.  

She made three front nine birdies before back-to-back gains after the turn saw her move into the solo lead. After finding a fairway bunker off the tee at the 12th, the 30-year-old dropped her lone shot of the day on the par 4.  

But that only appeared to refocus her mind as she then reeled off three consecutive birdies from the 14th through to the 16th, highlighted by a chip-in at the par-3 16th hole.

Home support

The French star then parred the final two holes before receiving a great ovation from the waves of fans assembled around the 18th green.  

Buhai, who, like Boutier, is competing in her second Games after making her debut at Rio 2016, mixed five birdies with one bogey in her 68.

She picked up birdies on the seventh and ninth holes to turn in 2-under, and was flawless on the back nine with birdies at the 13th and 14th holes.  

World no. 2 Lilia Vu, who has said a gold medal in Paris would trump her two major wins, was tied for third on 2-under with Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Colombia’s Mariajo Uribe.  

World number 1 and defending champion Nelly Korda started slowly with three bogeys in her first seven holes but recovered well to kick on at a 72 alongside Aditi. 

Frenchwoman Perrine Delacour hit the opening tee shot but later said the experience drained her and contributed to a disappointing 7-over 79.  

“I got lucky to be able to hit the first tee shot at the Olympics in my home country,” she said later.

“It was definitely a lot of emotion, and as you can see on the scorecard, I kind of left a lot of energy for the rest of the round…not crying on the first tee, that was hard. I mean, I’m just trying to do my best.

“I knew it was going to be a lot of emotion. But it was hard for sure when you start hearing La Marseillaise on the first tee. It was hard to stay patient and stay in the present because you really realise you’re playing from France and in front of your crowd.”

Also read: Aditi Ashok warms up for Paris with T22 finish at Portland Classic