Women's Golf Association of India

Aditi finishes Tied-17^th for best finish in a Major; will return with Diksha for Olympics

Evian Les Bains, July 15: Aditi Ashok produced a very strong finish at the Amundi Evian Championship as she birdied three times in the last four holes as she registered her best result in the Majors. She shot 2-under 69 and totalled 7-under for the week and was Tied-17th, the first time she has finished inside Top-20 at a Major.

Aditi’s previous best at a Major was T-22 at the 2018 Women’s Open.

Aditi, who has played more than 30 Majors shot 71-70-67-69 as Japan’s Ayaka Furue finished in a stunning manner with three birdies from 14th to the 16th and then an eagle on the 18th as she carded 69.

Aditi had an early bogey on the second followed by a string of pars and then a birdie on the 12th and a bogey and a birdie on 13th to be 1-over after 13 holes. Then came two birdies on the 15th and the 16th and a closing birdie on the 18th.

Diksha Dagar, the other Indian in the field, withdrew after the first round. The two Indians will also play at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Japan’s Ayaka Furue won her first major championship by a single shot when she holed an impressive eagle putt from 15 feet on the final green

at Evian Resort Golf Club in France.

Furue powered past Australian Stephanie Kyriacou to close out at 265, 19-under-par, and scoop the US $1.2 million first prize.

Locked in a three-way tie for the lead with clubhouse leader Patty Tavatanakit and Kyriacou coming to the 18th, Furue produced a moment of pure magic as her second shot flew over the lake protecting the green by the narrowest of margins and ended pin high. When she sank the tricky right to left putt, there was a huge roar from the galleries and she secured her second Ladies European Tour-LPGA co-sanctioned event, following the 2022 Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open. She also has eight wins on the JLPGA.

The 24-year-old from Kobe, who describes herself as too shy to even order her own food on the telephone, said: “I am so honoured to be the winner of the 2024 Amundi Evian Championship, with the 30th anniversary and 10th anniversary of this being a major.

She becomes the fourth Japanese player to win a major, following Chako Higuchi (1977 LPGA Championship), Hinako Shibuno (2019 AIG Women’s Open) and Yuka Sago, who won the US Women’s Open presented by Ally in May.

Furue, the halfway leader after successive opening rounds of 65, shot a third round of 70 and started the final round a stroke behind Kyriacou.

Furue made superb birdies on the second and third holes, but three-putted for bogey on the fourth. She birdied the ninth to go out in 33 and was two strokes behind the leader Lauren Coughlin of the United States at the turn. She bogeyed the 12th, but then made another excellent birdie on the par-3 12th, the first of three in a row.

Three birdies and an eagle in her final five holes closed out the major championship. On 18, she took a 6-iron to hit her second shot from the first cut of rough to the green.

She added that she was “very moved” to see the Japanese flag being delivered to her by a parachutist on the 18th green at the prize giving ceremony, part of the tradition of the only major in Continental Europe.

Kyriacou (67), who earned her best finish in a major championship, held the outright lead after 16 holes but dropped a shot on 17.

Tavatanakit ended in third place, with Coughlin in fourth, Haeran Ryu in fifth and Pajaree Anannarukarn in sixth position.

Esther Henseleit ended in a three-way tie for seventh place with Hye-Jin Choi and Peiyun Chien, whose round included a hole-in-one on the par-3 16th.