Abu Dhabi: India’s teen wonder Aditi Ashok remained ice cool despite a late slip-up to lift the Gazelle Trophy by one-stroke in the second edition of Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open (FBMLO) at the Saadiyat Beach Golf Course on Saturday.
This was Aditi’s first win for the season and, for her valiant efforts, she is richer by €70,787. England’s Georgia Hall was runner-up for the second year in a row while Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth kept the best for the last to finish third — two strokes behind leader.
Aditi was well aware that the two-stroke lead was not much and things would really boil down to the wire on the final day. The course had already shown that one can shoot low scores — especially on the par fives. Things really tightened up at the top of the leaderboard by the halfway mark.
The 19-year-old, after going on par for the first three holes had a bogey on fourth. However, she remained undeterred to restore her edge with two back-to-back birdies on fifth-sixth before finishing with a birdie on the ninth to go 17-under.
Hall, looking for her first title on the Ladies European Tour (LET), leapfrogged to the second spot after starting at joint fifth at 11-under. After first nine holes, Hall, who was the runner-up here last year, hit three birdies and was tied with Cheyenne Woods with 14-under. The American, niece of golf legend Tiger Woods, had a rough start with a bogey on the first hole. However, she put her campaign back on track with birdies on the second and sixth. To take a shot at the title, Woods needed to sink in more birdie putts but she could only manage one on the last hole and had to be satisfied with fourth place.
A lot was expected of South African Lee-Anne Pace, who held the lead for the first two days. Pace was tied third with Eleanor Givens of England at 12-under par but, after first nine holes, she was struggling at joint 10th following three bogeys and just one birdie. She struggled in the back nine as well and eventually finished at 8-under par for joint 27th spot. Givens, after her career-best third round, also had a poor run and had to be content with joint 11th with a round of 73.
By the 12th hole, Aditi had taken a four-stroke lead over her chasers. Hall continued to give a close pursuit after she managed a birdie on the 11th. Aditi was clearly in control and looked like running away with the title. With a birdie on the par for 13th she had a four-stroke lead over Hall and five over Woods and of Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth. Then another birdie on the 15th took her to 20-under and the title looked firmly tucked under her belt. However, things couldn’t have finished without a little drama and that came when Aditi missed two regulation putts on the 17th. That double bogie left her just one stroke ahead of Hall. The Brit, already on the 18th now needed a birdie and also hoped that Aditi makes another woeful error. Both didn’t happen — Aditi kept her nerve on the 18th to finish on par and sealed a memorable win.
