Indian quartet in the fray at Lacoste Ladies Open de France

By Rahul Banerji

Aditi Ashok made it into the weekend rounds of the Lacoste Ladies Open at the Golf du Medoc near Bordeaux, France while Diksha Dagar and Tvesa Malik still had some way to go on day two of the event on Friday.

Adidi had rounds of level par 71 and 2-over 73 to make the cut 12 shots behind runaway leader Nelly Korda of the United States, while Diksha and Tvesa were both closer to the cut line that is expected to fall on 5-over 147 on 4-over aggregates in the ongoing, weather-delayed second round.

Astha Madan was one under the projected cut line of 6-over at the time of writing, but was doing a better job of handling conditions on Friday than she had done on the opening day, which she ended on 6-over par 77.

India’s only representative on the US LPGA, Aditi was tied 34^th on 2-over 144 on the  par-71 Chateaux course in what is effective the national ladies open of France. The Lacoste Ladies Open de France is an important fixture on the Ladies European Tour (LET).

Three late birdies on day one helped Aditi bring in a par 71 card while Diksha and Tvesa were 1- and 2-over respectively. On Friday, Aditi mixed one birdie against two dropped shots which was good enough to see her into the final two days.

Runaway leader

Meanwhile, Nellie, daughter of Czech tennis star Petr Korda and a member of the USA’s losing Solheim Cup team at Gleneagles in Scotland last week, was five shots ahead of the rest of the pack having made the most of the morning’s conditions.

Charlotte Edwards of England and Spain’s Azahara Munoz were early into their second round and five and five shots respectively behind the lanky American.

Accoring to the LET website Solheim Cup winner Muñoz and Madelene Sagstrom had carded 5-under-par 66s on Thursday morning to set the clubhouse lead.

Muñoz had six birdies against one bogey and is hoping for a third title at the event after success in 2013 and 2014.

She said after Thursday’s round: “It was a great day. I gave myself lots of chances and only missed one fairway which was on my first hole of the day, the 10^th, and I saved a great par. After that, I played really solid and gave myself lots of birdie chances and I made some really nice putts.”

Local challenge

Solheim Cup star Celine Boutier of France leads the 26-strong local challenge but will be hard-pressed to catch Korda, who is the highest ranked player in the field at 10^th on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Boutier played a pivotal role amassing four points from her four matches in the Solheim Cup, which Europe won in dramatic fashion last Sunday with literally the last putt of the last singles match.

The Frenchwoman combined with Georgia Hall for two wins in foursomes and another in Saturday’s fourballs, before she best Annie Park by 2&1 in the fourth singles match on Sunday.

“It was pretty unbelievable. I think we all did believe in our chances. We all thought we had a very good team. Everyone brought out the best of themselves. For me, I thought I played better than I thought I would. It was just great to share that with everyone on the team,” Boutier said.

“The whole Sunday, it was a pretty tight match and we all knew that every point was going to count. Just the fact that Suzann (Petterson of Sweden) had the last putt to win made everything better,” the LET website quoted her as having said.

Defending Hero Women’s Indian Open champion Becky Morgan of Wales was on the cut line at 5 over with much of her second round to go

Also read: Solid home lineup confirmed for Hero Women’s Indian Open