Tokyo 2020: How does golf at the Olympics work and where does India’s Aditi Ashok stand?

Note: This article was published before the fourth round of action began on Saturday. Follow the updates from the final round here.

Indian golfer Aditi Ashok has kept herself in contention for a medal at the Olympic Games after another impressive round on Friday.

Aditi Ashok is among the two Indians at the event, with Diksha Dagar (tied-51st) a later entry.

In round three that came to a close, Aditi registered a three-under 68 to be in sole second position on the leaderboard behind only the impressive Nelly Korda of USA, who has a handy three-stroke lead at the top.

This is Aditi’s second Olympic appearance. She had finished tied 41st in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro edition.

Golf individual stroke play at the Olympics, explained:

• Kasumigaseki Country Club, in Saitama, Japan is the venue
• The men’s event was held from July 29 to August 1 while the women’s event began on August 4 and is scheduled to end on August 7.
• 60 athletes play four rounds of 18 holes over four days, competing over a total of 72 holes. The course is the same for all four rounds. Rounds have lasted typically more than four hours.
• Three rounds completed, fourth round underway for women. Combined standings at the end of this round will decide medals. 
• There are a total of four rounds of 18 holes each. At the end of all four rounds, whoever has finished the course with least number of strokes, wins. (More negative, better)
  
• Each hole is assigned a predetermined number of strokes depending on its degree of difficulty and length from the tee to green — for example, three, four or five. A player who succeeds in hitting the ball into the hole with that exact number of strokes is said to have achieved par. Doing so with one stroke less is called a birdie (good), while doing so with two strokes less is known as an eagle (very good). By contrast, using one stroke more than par is known as a bogey (bad) and two strokes over par is a double bogey (very bad).
• Par score for a round at this range is 71 for 18 holes. A player who finishes the 18 holes with 68 strokes on a 71-par course is said to be ‘THREE under’. Three under is better than Two under is better than One under.
• The fourth round on Saturday has a rain threat looming (early start because of weather forecast).

• All 60 athletes compete in all four rounds.
• If there is a tie of scores at the end of four rounds for the medal spots, there will be a separate playoff for those golfers.

— With inputs from Olympics.com

Aditi Ashok

• Aditi Ashok so far has had rounds of 67, 66, 68 for a total 12-under par and has a two-stroke lead compared to third-placed golfers. The leader of the pack has a total of 15-under which means she is three strokes better than Aditi. If the scores are tied at the end of four rounds for the medal spots, there will be a separate playoff for those golfers as was the case in the men’s event for bronze.
• So, if Aditi has another good under par round to finish her event, her chances look good. She needs to keep getting as many pars as possible and get a few birdies here and there. She has had only THREE bogeys so far in three rounds combined.
• She will need to keep an eye on golfers behind her on the leaderboard to see if they are improving their scores with birdies
• Aditi was 12-under 201 after three rounds and is the sole golfer in the second position. Four players – New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (66), Australia’s Hannah Green (67), Demark’s Kristine Pederson (70) and Japan’s Mone Inami (68) – shared the third spot with totals of 10-under 203.
• She will start her round 4 at 4:48 am IST (if weather permits) alongside Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko.
• Aditi, after carding a flawless five-under 66 in the second round of the women’s competition on Thursday, registered two bogeys on Friday but also had five birdies. The 23-year-old rolled in five birdies in the second too, which included three in her last four holes.
• Aditi has her mother, Maheshwari, as her caddie, trails leader – world no 1 Korda of USA – by three shots and has a two-stroke lead over many golfers in tied-third. Korda (67-62-69) at one stage was 11-under for 17 holes and looked set for a historic sub-60 score of 59 at the Par-71 course on Thursday.

Leaderboard after three rounds

Weather forecast

More information on weather-related matters will be added here as we receive them. As things stand, athletes start off at 3 am IST on Saturday, with Aditi starting later by virtue being among the top.