India's Aditi Ashok wins Magical Kenya Ladies Open

India’s Aditi Ashok Sunday walked away with the Magical Kenya Ladies Open title despite dropping three shots in the final round of the 2023 Magical Kenya Ladies Open at the PGA Baobab Course Vipingo Ridge in Kilifi County.

Ashok,  a winner of three other Ladies European Tour (LET) titles, who had her father Pandit Ashok as her caddie and manager, got off to a flying start with an opening round birdie after a brilliant driver and a superb approach shot, to go 14 under par for the tournament.

She however dropped a shot at the eighth where she fired to the water. But this did not discourage her as she started off the back nine with a birdie at the 11th and stayed firmly in control at the 15th where she dropped a shot, and later on at the 17th.

She parred the 18th for one over par 73 and a total of 12 under par 280, winning from start to finish and with a big margin of nine shots from England’s Alice Hewson and Thailand’s April Angurasaranee, who had at one time moved to eight under par, though picked up a double at the 10th having bogeyed the fifth hole earlier.

“It has been a great week and I think it has proven that my off-season and hard work has paid off this week. I just kept hitting fairways and greens and I think the last few holes I didn’t make very many good swings but it’s all good, I guess.

I have worked a lot with my coach and my fitness team back home. We have put in a lot of work over two months just to get back to my original strength level and I think this week I feel I have gotten back to where I was maybe a couple of years ago, and I think it is pretty good," said Aditi Ashok, who missed a medal narrowly in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
 
Meanwhile, with only two birdies having been picked up on the second and sixth holes, Angurasaranee needed more birdies to secure second spot.

She however bogeyed the 13th, 16th and 17th for final round 77 to tie for second place with Alice Hewson, who shot one under par 72 in the final round for a total of 289.

Kenya’s only survivor in the tournament, Naomi Wafula carded four over par 77 in the final round, which included five bogeys with only one bogey, to finish in 56th place, beating five professionals who had also made cut.

"It was really exciting for me to have made history by becoming the first Kenyan to make the cut at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open. I have spent the whole year going to the gym and practicing at the golf course and so I am happy that I was able to achieve my goal. My hope this year is to get more invites to play at LET tournaments outside the country so that I can get world ranking points’’ said Wafula.
 
Final leader board:

Aditi Ashok (Ind)  67, 70, 69, 74= 280

Alice Hewson (Eng) 71, 73, 73, 72= 289

April Angurasaranee (Tha) 71, 71, 70, 77=289

Gabriela Ruffels (Aus) 74, 71, 7174=290

Yuri Onishi (Jap) 74, 72, 74, 72= 292

Noora Komulanen(Fin) 74, 74, 71, 73=292