Tokyo Olympics Golf: Heartbreak for Aditi Ashok, misses medal by a whisker

Indian golfer Aditi Ashok (Source: Reuters)

Indian golfer Aditi Ashok finishes 4th at the Tokyo Olympics after carding 3-under 68 in the final round. Aditi, who finished 41st in the 2016 Rio Olympics, put up a heroic display and remained in the top three positions in the first three rounds at Tokyo Olympics which no other Indian golfer has ever managed to do.

The 23-year-old rolled in five birdies to be placed a famous fourth on fifteen-under 201 ahead of Australia's Hannah Green and Denmark's Pedersen who tied for fifth.

World Number one, the United States of America's Nelly Korda clinched gold with 17 under par. Meanwhile, Japan's Mone Inami and New Zealand's Lydia Ko were playing for bronze and silver.

Aditi Ashok misses medal by a whisker. Finishes at 4th spot.
Absolute proud of you Aditi the way you have performed in last 4 days.
More power to you #Tokyo2020 #Tokyo2020withIndia_AllSports pic.twitter.com/LHmJUUTWZB — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) August 7, 2021

In the first 8 holes of the course, Aditi had a flawless start with 3 birdies which included back-to-back ones on holes 5 and 6. Nelly Korda who was sailing very comfortably in the final round, had a horror show when she put a double bogey on 7th which gave Ashok and Lydia Ko of New Zealand a chance to be tied up at the top of the leaderboard. At that moment in the match, all three players were tied up on the top for the first position with a -14.

The Indian had a rough end to outward holes as she sank her first bogey of the day and soon on second inward she put another bogey after getting par on 10th. Meanwhile, Nelly Korda then stunningly recovered from that double bogey for three straight birdies and moved back to the top.

Mone Inami soon found herself in the medal fray on greens as the Japanese sank four straight birdies on holes 12, 13, 14, 15 to gain the sole control of the second position. Going into the last three holes of the course Mone had already putt 8 birdies in the day.

Ashok kept her nerves to putt birdie in 13th and 14th and par on 15th which helped her to stay in top-4 with the final three holes to play. Lydia Ko then proceeded to putt a bogey on 16th while Ashok par saw her tied for the third position.

This time you have won our hearts Aditi  | Next time it would be a medal we are sure.
Love & respect all the way @aditigolf pic.twitter.com/ip8OPuBh6t — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) August 7, 2021

With the leaders already teed off on the penultimate hole, the play was abruptly suspended due to the dangerous weather in the area. Shortly after play resumed and Aditi started with a par, and Ko with a clutch birdie to claim the third position alone going into last. Japanese Inami was the only other player to get birdie in 17th which saw her tying up for 1st with Nelly.

In the final hole of the course, Mone putted for bogey -- out of the bunker. Meanwhile Aditi, Nelly, and Ko putted for par.