Aditi Ashok is excited to be back on the Ladies European Tour (LET) this week and looking to carry forward her recent good form.
The Indian star had a sensational start to the 2023 season on the LET winning the season-opener at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, before finishing third at the Lalla Meryem Cup and second at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International.
As a result of her phenomenal start, Ashok leads the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol having accumulated 1,210.00 points and still sits at the top of the standings after the first seven events.
“The first three weeks on the LET were great and that gave me a lot of confidence going into the LPGA season as well,” said Ashok.
“It was pretty cool to start off with a win, third place and then second place because I worked on a lot of stuff in the off-season, but you never really know if it’s worked or not until you put it in play and perform well.
“I think it’s rubbed off even in the last few weeks on the LPGA Tour, I have been playing good so I hope to continue that.
“I always felt like I was good enough to be at this level, but my game probably wasn’t. I wasn’t hitting it as far as some of the best players and even though I was a good golfer and I could chip and putt my way around, it wasn’t giving me as many opportunities.
“Last year I was looking at my game and I was ranked last on driving distance on the LPGA and that put things into perspective. I said I have to be better at this otherwise I won’t be able to have those deep finishes especially in stronger fields.”
Ashok heads into the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – Florida off the back of a T5 finish at the Cognizant Founders Cup and T2 at the JM Eagle LA Championship.
Having still got the lead in the Race to Costa del Sol, the 25-year-old is hoping to add a few more points to her tally at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.
She explained, “Even though I play LPGA, I have always enjoyed playing on the LET and tried to keep my card here. This year I have gotten off to a good start.
“The bigger picture is playing well at the Majors and the bigger events and that’s always my main goal, but to have another thing to look forward to and having some extra motivation for the European swing.
“If I can also play maybe the Hero Women’s Indian Open and a couple of the ATS events and hopefully the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España at the end of the year – we’ll see. I hope I can play more LET events this year and try and win the Race to Costa del Sol.”
Ashok, who is ranked 49th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, is a captain this week and picked Germany’s Laura Fuenfstueck while they will also be joined by German rookie Patricia Isabel Schmidt.
She added, “I started my professional career on this Tour, so I know a lot of the players and it’s always good to come back and meet everybody. I chose Laura because I’ve known her since I joined the Tour, she’s really nice and she was very high on her average birdies per round which is useful this week.
“It’s different playing in these events. Sometimes it helps that the atmosphere is a bit more low-key, and I feel like that’s good for a change in the game and a change in the mindset. You’re having fun and focusing on the team score, it’s a good way to play and have your mind off the individual score.”
Meanwhile, Johanna Gustavsson heads into the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – Florida in good form and as defending team captain.
The Swedish star, who finished third in the 2022 Race to Costa del Sol, captained her team to victory in New York last October beating Team Nelly Korda by one shot.
Gustavsson had a good return to the Tour last week recording a T4 finish at the Jabra Ladies Open at Evian Resort.
But she knows that this week’s tournament at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach will be a tough challenge.
“Last week was good, I played well,” she said. “I have this love for Evian and seem to do quite well when I got there. My biggest mission this week has been getting over the jetlag.
“It’s obviously a great course and very challenging – I like that. It’s really going to test our games. It’s quite tough from the tee, so you have to hit it quite straight.
“Then I think the big challenge coming from Europe is the speed of the greens and trying to get into that as quickly as possible. There might be a few long second putts this week, so we will be trying to minimise that and definitely be switched on.”
Gustavsson picked fellow Swede Linda Wessberg in Wednesday’s Draft and they will also be joined by Spain’s Paz Marfa Sans.
And the captain is hoping that the experience her teammates have in the United States will pay dividends in the 36-hole team competition.
She explained, “Linda is obviously a great teammate, she’s fun and very nice and I think we’re going to have a great time. I also picked her because she played well last week at Evian.
Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson are excited to get underway for this week’s Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – Florida.
The duo are no strangers to the innovative format having both competed in previous editions with Ko teeing it up in Singapore in March while Thompson won the event staged in New York last October.
The Aramco Team Series – Florida will see 108 professionals compete in two competitions simultaneously with a 36-hole Team competition alongside a 54-hole stroke play competition, where there will be a cut to the top-60 professionals and ties at the end of round two.
Lydia Ko of New Zealand. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
World number three Ko produced a final round of 66 (-6) in Singapore to finish in third place on the Individual leaderboard.
And after experiencing the unique format for the first time, the New Zealander is ready to play again this week at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.
“I really enjoyed playing in the ATS – Singapore,” said Ko. “There’s not that many opportunities where you play in a team format, even though we are counting our individual scores.
“It was nice to be in that kind of a team atmosphere, something different having an amateur as well for the first couple of days. I really enjoyed it. That golf course was very new to me at Laguna National, and this is a new golf course, so I’m just trying to get a good gauge of how the course is playing.
