Amundi Evian Championship: Aditi Ashok card 1-under 70 in opening round as Aki Iwai leads

Indian golfer Aditi Ashok carded a 1-under 70 to sit tied for 35th after the opening round of the Amundi Evian Championship. Japan's Aki Iwai holds a two-shot lead following a spectacular, bogey-free round of 8-under 63

Evian-Les-Bains (France): Indian golfer Aditi Ashok opened with an erratic one-under 70 to be tied for the 35th position after the opening round of the Amundi Evian Championship, which is a Major on the women’s circuit.

Aditi, a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, and a champion at Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2016, is playing the tournament for the ninth time, but has finished in Top-25 only once.

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She trails Japan’s Aki Iwai by seven shots. Aditi had two birdies and two bogeys on the front side of the course and then one bogey and back to back birdies on the 14th and the 15th.

Iwai fired a bogey-free opening round of eight-under 63 to hold a two-stroke lead at the end of the first day of action. The 24-year-old teed off in the morning, making her first birdie of the day on the fifth hole followed by birdies on seventh and ninth.

Iwai, who has one LPGA Tour title to her name, made birdies on 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th holes, and she finished with a birdie at the last to sit atop the leaderboard on eight-under-par.

France’s Perrine Delacour sits in solo second place on six-under-par after an opening round of 65 — her lowest in a Major championship.

Five players are in a share of third place at the 18-hole mark with England’s Charley Hull, Sweden’s Maja Stark, Korean pair Haeran Ryu and Jin Hee Im alongside Mao Saigo on five-under.

The cut will be applied at the top 65 players and ties at the end of the second day