There was plenty made of Aditi Ashok’s chances of winning a medal in golf after her solid performance over the course of the first two days at the Olympic Golf Course. The 18 year old had showed remarkable composure and consistency to stand at 8th place at the halfway stage. However, it was all about to change as she endured a torrid day 3 at Barra Da Tijuca.
There were early warning signs as she bogeyed the 2nd hole. She recovered immediately with a birdie on the 5th hole to put her campaign back on track. After that birdie, there was no further joy as she hit 4 bogeys and 2 double bogeys on a windy day in Rio. She dropped to 31st place by the end of day 3. It was a disappointing day for her, but she can redeem herself with a strong final showing.
The day belonged to World No. 1 Lydia Ko. The golfer from New Zealand finally turned up in Rio and did so in style. She shot a day’s best of 6 under par 65. It was a scintillating round that saw her start quickly with a string of birdies, before capping her performance with a hole-in-one on the par 3 8th hole. Her round saw her shoot up the leaderboard and she is now tied for second place with Gerina Piller of the United States.
Inbee Park of Korea continued her dominant performance with a solid round of 2 under par 69. Her third round wasn’t as impressive as her earlier two, but was more than enough to give her a 3 shot cushion going into the final 18 holes. Shanshan Feng of China is in 3rd place after her round of 3 under par 68.
There’s plenty to look forward to on the final day and it promises to be an all-out battle between Lydia Ko and Inbee Park for the gold.
