Emily Pedersen wins Hero Women's Indian Open Title, Aditi Ashok finishes 13th

Emily Pedersen with the Hero Women’s Indian Open Trophy

Emily Kristine Pedersen grabbed her maiden Ladies European Tour Title in sensational manner, at the Hero Women’s Indian Open. India’s hope at the tournament, Aditi Ashok notched up a five-over 77 as she finished at tied 13th.

On a hot day in Delhi, Aditi wilted with a round of 77 after 75 and 73 on the first two days to total nine-over 225 to end one place better than what she did a year before.

Vani Kapoor finished tied-20th, while Saaniya Sharma finished at 21-over in Tied-60th place and Smriti Mehra stood last at 62nd at 23-over 239.

On a somewhat heated but perfect day for golf, the 19-year-old from Denmark, who turned pro at the start of this year, had a final bogey putt from less than three feet on the final hole. Her first putt from 10-feet for par went three feet past the cup.

Pawan Munjal, Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of Hero MotoCorp handed over the glittering Hero Women’s Indian Trophy to Emily and she was also rewarded with a USD 60,000 cheque.

Pedersen carded a 73 for the final round and her total even par 216 made sure no one caught up to her. There was a three-way tie for second place with American Cheyenne Woods (71), Denmark's Malene Jorgensen (72) and Becky Morgan (73) all finishing at one-over 217.

England's Liz Young (72) was fifth at two-over 218, while Italian Giulia Sergas, one of the few to birdie the 18th – .she however had three bogeys to her name in a row – carded 73 and ended sixth at four-over 220.

Vani Kapoor seemed to have clinched the deal with home club as she was one-under through 16 holes, before disaster struck. She bogeyed the tough 17 and worse was the triple bogey on the closing 18th and that loss of four shots in two holes saw her drop to 75 for the day and 11-over for the week and finish Tied-20th.

The normally quite consistent Aditi, made some accidental errors and had to suffer for her mistakes as she double bogeyed the par-5 fourth immediately after dropping a shot on par-3 third.

Another dropped shot on sixth meant she was four-over through six holes. There was some recovery on par-5 eighth, a hole she birdied for the third straight day, but that gain was frittered away by her second double bogey on par-4 10th.

She did well to make some ground with birdies on 12th and 15th, but the bogey-bogey finish meant 77, the worst card for the week.

Vani, started off the week badly despite having very high expectations from the event with a card of six-over 78. She made amends on the second day with a fine 73 and looked like making a charge for a possible Top-10, before striking disaster at the end. She recovered pretty well to move up from Tied-27th to 20th as the best Indian professional.

This season Pedersen finished second at Open de France and Deloitte Ladies Open in Holland, besides two other Top-10 finishes at the Turkish Ladies and Scottish Open and is now a top choice for the ‘Rookie of The Year” award.

A deliriously happy Pedersen said, "The win really feels good. I have come close more than a few times so it feels great to finally do it. It has yet to sink in and I am so happy and my caddie, Mike Curry, kept me calm at important stages.”