Rio de Janeiro: Teenager Aditi Ashok, turned out to be best advertisement for Indian women’s golf as she displayed no sign of nervousness and carded a superb 3-under 68 to be placed tied 7th at the end of the first round in the Olympic Women Golf competition here on Wednesday.
Unlike two Indian men golfers Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chawrasia, who struggled throughout the competition and finished way down the leaderboard, Aditi played with self assurance and confidence to end the day just three shots behind the leader Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, who finished with 6-under 65.
The Bangalore-based golfer started in the company of the 40th-ranked Carlota Ciganda of Spain and Russia's Maria Verchenova, Aditi comfortably completed the par-five 1st, before registering her first birdie on the 2nd.
She then played out the remaining seven holes on the front nine at par, and then climbed into the top 10 of the leaderboard for the first time with a birdie on the 10th.
Aditi fired her third birdie at the 14th, while Ciganda carded a double-bogey on the 15th to slip from the top of the leaderboard. However, she held her nerves to finish with 3-under 68.
Talking about her opening-round, Aditi said, "At the end of the day, just fall back on your routine, and just go out there and play golf. And that's what I did."
"As a professional, you don't get an Olympic experience. And to play for my country, especially at such a young age, it means a lot to me."