Aditi Ashok (-17) has won the Spanish Open after signing an immaculate card of 66 strokes in the final round, the best record of the day. The Indian, who is only 25 years old (although it seems that she has spent her whole life in this circus, as she turned professional at 17) and arrived at this event as Number 59 in the world, has been the best, by far, in the last third of this last round, the last six holes, which is where tournaments are usually decided, a stretch in which she has put together up to four birdies (holes 13, 15, 16 and 17), leaving the rest of the candidates who had reached that point of the day with some possibility without any capacity to respond.
The Indian did not give a break: either sinking putts from medium or long distance, like the one at hole 15, from about ten meters; or hitting great shots, like the one at hole 16, the last par 3 of the Las Brisas course, where she left a birdie option that barely reached half a meter away, or the one at hole 13, where she also left a short birdie putt…
No one, not even close, managed to keep up with her pace. In fact, both the Dutch Ann Van Dam (-15), who managed to reach the lead halfway through the day, and the Spanish Ana Peláez (-13), the Swedish Linn Grant (-12) or the French Celine Boutier (-10), were able to play below par that mentioned stretch of the last six holes, where Ashok unleashed her particular tornado.
Before reaching that crucial point of the round, the leader at the start of the day, the young Australian Kirsten Rudgeley (-12), who had been up all week and who, nevertheless, despite her final 73, has finished in a prominent fourth position.
It is worth highlighting the Sunday 68 of Ana Peláez and, above all, her spectacular partial of four less in the first ten holes that put her fully in the fight for the victory in the tournament and, incidentally, also in the Race to Costa del Sol. In the end, neither one thing nor the other, it is true, but it matters much less when you leave the feelings that she has left. She also finished with a great birdie on the 18th to conquer the third place alone and get rid of the bogey on the 15th, last par 5, due to an untimely three-putt.
