Aditi Ashok swings well enough to balance her mistakes on a tough day at Wilshire Country Club, shooting a 1-under 70 to take a one-shot lead after round two of the LA Championship on Friday.
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Aditi Ashok holed a sand wedge from about 85 yards on the fly at the par-5 15th, part of a three-hole heat that included five bogeys during an up-and-down round. She shot 6-under 136 in round two, one shot ahead of Cheyenne Knight (69), Hannah Green (69), and Pernilla Lindberg (70).
India’s 25-year-old Ashok had his father in the bag, and there was a lot of buzz ahead of her best shot of the day. “It was kind of an in-between number, so we were almost trying to hit the next wedge because there’s water short of the green, but I decided to hit that one a little more full, and we got the number exactly right because it landed in the hole. So we’re like, OK, maybe it’s not a bad number.” Aditi Ashok said.
Aditi Ashok, ranked 90th in the world, birdied the par-4 fifth but finished with bogeys at the 7th and 9th. “I think some of the misses here can be really brutal. A couple of the par-3s I missed them on the long side, like left on 18 today, and I basically had no shot. I was basically making up-and-down for bogey.” She added. While Green, who had four birdies and two bogeys, said Wilshire tests players’ patience.
Meanwhile, Sarah Kemp (68), Linnea Strom (70), and Alison Lee (71) were two shots back on the leaderboard a bunch away. First-round leader Linnea Johansson was in the group at three under after a 75. There were 21 players within four shots of the lead, including world No. 1 Nelly Korda and third-ranked Jin Young Ko, both at 2 under. While at Kyung, Kim made a hole-in-one on the par-3 12th and was even on par. A week after winning her first major at the Chevron Championship, Southern California native Lilia Vu shot a 2-over 75 and missed the cut by one shot.
