India’s Diksha Dagar and Aditi Ashok finished the first round of the women’s golf event at the Paris 2024 Olympics in T7 and T13 positions, respectively, on Wednesday.

Competing at the Golf National, Diksha Dagar carded 1-under 71 to be tied in seventh place with five other players. The 2021 Deaflympics gold medallist was consistent for most of the day but bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes pushed her down on the leaderboard.

The women’s golf at Paris 2024 features 60 golfers, who will compete over four days in four rounds. Each round consists of 18 holes.

Meanwhile, India’s No. 1 golfer Aditi Ashok started well with two birdies in the front nine. However, she hit a double bogey on the 18th hole after finding water and slipped down from the top three. Aditi carded an even par 72 and is tied 13th with 12 other players.

Aditi, who arrived in Paris after playing at the Portland Classic in the US last week, suffered a bit from fatigue.

“Today was not great because when I got here on Monday, I slept through the night probably because I was tired from the round and the travel,” Aditi said.

“But then last night I was up from 1 AM to like 4 AM. So I have not figured it out yet. Hopefully, it gets better as the week goes on. Not at 100 percent but close enough.”

Diksha and Aditi, both Tokyo Olympians, still have three rounds to climb up on the leaderboard as there are no cuts in the field for golf at the Olympics. The Indian women golfers will be back for the second round on Thursday.

Celine Boutier of France, with a three-shot lead, sits pretty on top with 7-under 65 in the opening round. She hit eight birdies, including three in a row on the back nine. Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa is second with a 4-under 68.

The USA’s Lilia Vu, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux and Colombia’s Mariajo Uribe are tied for third, carding 2-under par 70.

Golf featured in the Olympic programme in 1900 and 1904 but was dropped from the itinerary after that. The sport made a return at Rio 2016 and has been part of the Olympics since.

India’s best finish in golf at the Olympics came at Tokyo 2020 when Aditi Ashok finished fourth.