Late eagle powers Aditi through

India’s Aditi Ashok turned in a plucky performance to make the halfway cut in her first LPGA event of 2017, as she shot three-under 70 to place herself in tied 39th place at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open golf tournament here.

Aditi, who has a limited status on LPGA, had a rough start in the first round with a one-over 74 at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club.

She is now two-under 144 through 36 holes and nine shots adrift of the leader, Orlando-based Queenslander Sarah Jane Smith (70, 67).

Sarah Jane, who was second at the recent RACV Gold Coast challenge on Australian LPGA Tour, has her husband Duane on the bag as her full-time caddy.

Tied in second place are four players, of which two are past champions at the Hero Women’s Indian Open, Caroline Hedwall (69, 69) of Sweden and Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum (68, 70).

The other two at second place are Americans Lizette Salas (68, 70) and Marissa Steen (67, 71).

Lahiri ends poorly

India’s Anirban Lahiri must be ruing yet another disappointing finish after having worked hard for most part of the first round as he ended the day at one-under 70 at the Genesis Open golf tournament in Pacific Palisades, US.

Lahiri, who was in the first group to tee off from the tenth in the opening round, had an eventful opening nine, on the backside of the Riviera, where he had four birdies and three bogeys to be one-under at the turn.

Birdies on first and fifth put him at three-under with four holes to go. But back-to-back bogeys on seventh and eighth, missing putts inside four feet and three feet, pushed him back to one-under.

At the top, Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, returned a clean card for a 7-under 64 and an early two-shot lead.

Young Saunders called it his best round and what’s more, it came on the 50-year anniversary of Palmer defending his title at the Los Angeles Open. The event was then played at Rancho Municipal.