Aditi finishes T-5th in Dubai Ladies Classic
Dubai, December 9
Aditi Ashok rounded off a great year with a tied-5th finish at the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic here today.
Aditi, who was five-under through 17 ended with a double bogey, which took her from 10-under to 12-under.
Angel Yin, displaying her vast potential and power off the tee as well as a soft touch around the greens, won in a three-way playoff to capture the title in a riveting finish at Emirates Golf Club.
Aditi, who was tied-4th after the third day, had a slow start with two birdies on front nine, but she did make a charge adding two more on 12th and 13th.
A bogey on par-3 15th was a dampener, but back-to-back birdies on 16th and 17th were good. The closing double would have left her upset, but a tied-5th was a solid finish to 2017.
Aditi finished seventh on the Order of Merit, which was won by Georgia Hall of England.
The 19-year-old Los Angeles native Angel saved par after finding the water on the closing hole in a bogey-free final round of 67 to match the clubhouse target of a 15-under-par set by South Korea’s In-Kyung Kim and Celine Herbin of France.
Long-hitting Yin and Kim birdied the first extra hole (the 18th) to stay in the hunt, while Herbin was eliminated after finding the water with her third shot.
A tap-in birdie on the drivable second playoff hole (254-yard 17th) saw Yin clinch the issue as the South Korean agonisingly missed her birdie effort in the first ever play-off since the tournament’s inception in 2006.
Herbin, who shot a final round of 64, wasn’t too disappointed at being eliminated with a double bogey on the 18th hole.
Overnight leader Anne Van Dam fired a final round of 71 and ended two strokes behind in fourth place, with Aditi, Charley Hull and Pernilla Lindberg tied for the fifth.
Thidapa Suwannapura was eighth and Olivia Cowan and Michele Thomson completed the top 10. — PTI
