Aditi Ashok blew a seven-shot overnight lead on the final day of golf competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games and came away with a consolation silver medal even as India missed out on a podium in the team event on Sunday.
Well-placed to close out a historic golf medal given the size of her lead, India’s top women golfer saw her advantage slip away with a tentative performance over the closing 18 holes, dropping six shots in all after having recorded just one bogey over the first three days of competition.
There was however, consolation in the fact that Ashok’s individual silver medal was the first for India in women’s golf and the first podium finish in the sport since the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games where the men’s team of Abhijit Singh Chadha, Abhinav Lohan, Rahul Bajaj and Rashid Khan took the silver medal behind Suth Korea.
Ashok, 25, had carded 67, 65 and a blistering 11-under-par 61 over the first 54 holes, which made her Sunday performance even more inexplicable as she finally came home in 5 over par 77.
Between Thursday and Saturday, she recorded 19 birdies and two eagles. On Sunday, she could only pick up one shot as fellow LPGA player Arpichaya Yubol of Thailand cashed in on the opportunity with a 4 under 68 on her way to the gold medal.
From an overnight 22 under par score, Ashok finished her campaign at the par-72 West Lake International Course on 17-under par 271, two shots behind the winner with four bogeys and a double. South Korea’s Hyunjo Hoo took the bronze with a 272 aggregate, one stroke behind Ashok.
It was a sharp contrast to the Ashok’s display at the Tokyo Olympics where she battled through the final day to miss the podium by just one shot behind Nelly Korda (USA), Mone Inami (Japan) and Lydia Ko (New Zealand).
India also slipped off the podium in the team event at Hangzhou, finishing fourth after having started Sunday’s final round in the lead by one shot. Thailand, South Korea and hosts China took the women’s team medals in that order.
India’s other two players in the women’s event, Pranavi Urs (75) and Avani Prashanth (76), also had a rough day in the final round finishing 13th and tied for 18th respectively.
In the men’s section, Anirban Lahiri (65-67-74-68) finished in a share of 12th place, with Khalin Joshi (70-69-69-73) tied for 27th, two-time Indian Open winner Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia (67-72-68-75) 29th. and Shubhankar Sharma (68-69-76-73) was 32nd. The men’s
team ended in seventh place as South Korea took gold, Thailand the silver and Hong Kong the bronze medal.
At the top of the men’s individual competition, Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho (62-60-70-69) was 27-under and held on to his third-round lead to win gold. South Korea’s PGA Tour winner, Sungjae Im (66-65-66-65) took silver on 26-under and Taipei’s Chien-Yao Hung (65-63-67-69) was third on 24-under.
Unlike her playing partner Ashok, the 21-year-old Yubol put together a composed 68 in difficult scoring conditions on a day, when just six players in the field had sub-par round. Yubol (67-65-69-68), trailing Aditi by seven shots overnight, battled her way from 15-under to 19-under, good enough to beat the Indian by two shots.
South Korea were the only team to figure among medals in all four sections with bronze (individual) and silver (team) in the women’s competition, and gold (team) and silver (individual) in the men’s event.