Aditi Ashok makes a fine start at Sime Darby LPGA

KUALA LUMPUR: Aditi Ashok flying half way across the world to return to the tournament, where she played her first LPGA tournament last year, the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia had a fine start, which she unfortunately frittered away on the second nine.

Aditi, who has been logging a lot of miles, carded a first round of even par 71 and was lying T-30 alongside World No. 1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand in the US $ 2 million event.

The week before last, Aditi played and finished Tiedeighth at the Xiamen International in China for her fourth Top-10 finish in a row on the Ladies European Tour.

She then flew to Florida to play the second stage of the LPGA Qualifying, from where successfully earned a berth into the final stage to be held in December.

Soon after she boarded another flight enroute back to Asia for Sime Darby in Kuala Lumpur.

But the cheery 18-yearold Bengaluru golfer has been taking it all in the stride as she looks to make a place for herself in the elite of the game.

She started her round with a birdie, but gave it away on the third. Back-to-back birdies on eighth and ninth saw her turn in one-under and things looked with two par5s on the back nine.

However, she dropped a shot on 11th and then double bogeyed par-4 13th and failed to birdie either of the two par-5s.

Meanwhile, a bogey free round saw Amy Yang card an 8-under par 63 to finish top of the leader-board after the first round.

The South Korean, who is yet to register a win on the LPGA Tour this year, is two strokes ahead of Marina Alex, who is in second place at 6-under par 65.

Alex was accompanied in her group by Michelle Wie, who is one shot behind her, and tied in third place at 5-under par alongside Mo Martin, Feng Shanshan, Jenny Shin, Suzann Pettersen and Azahara Munoz.

Wie has experienced a difficult season thus far, but has shown signs of an upward turn after finishing in an encouraging tenth place at the recent Blue Bay LPGA last week.