Jahanvi Bakshi keeps her cool to land second career win at DLF

By Rahul Banerji

Jahanvi Bakshi kept a calm head in the closing stages to seal her second career win in the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Friday.

The Army officer’s daughter now has two wins and a second place in her last three Hero WPGT starts. Younger sister Hitaashee, a Tour winner herself, was tied ninth.

The venue is incidentally home for the Bakshi sisters, who train at the DLF Golf Academy.

Jahanvi won the fifth leg (on the DLF course) and finished second in the sixth when the first half of the season was ended in March by the pandemic.

After 73 and 70 in her first two rounds, Jahanvi shot a 2-over 74 in the third round on Friday for a total of 1-over 217. Amateur Avani Prashanth (73) with a bogey on 18 was forced to settle for second at 2-over 218.

Overnight joint leader and amateur Sneha Singh (76) lost ground at the finish with two bogeys and a double to fall to third place on 3-over 219.

Close finish

It was a tight battle for honours with all three in the fray going into the final four holes.

Jahanvi, 18, overcame a double bogey on the Par-4 14^th and played out of the last four holes with no further damage to her card.

In contrast Avani, who was tied with Jahanvi even after 17 holes, faltered with a bogey on the Par-5 18^th.

Playing in the same group, Sneha faltered at the finish on the challenging DLF layout, dropping four shots in four holes including a double bogey.

Seher Atwal, one of the two players to register an under-par score in the first round, had a 77-82 sequence in the final two rounds to finish a distant fourth on 14-over 230.

Siddhi Kapoor (74) was fifth, while Gaurika Bishnoi (76), who plans to travel to Europe soon, was sixth.

Oviya Reddi (77) and Trimann Saluja (83) were tied for seventh. Amateur Zara Anand (77), Afshan Fatima (79) and Hitaashee (83) were tied ninth.

The eighth leg of the Hero WPG Tour tees off at the Golden Green Golf Club in Gurgaon from September 8.

Also read: Sneha Singh, Jahanvi Bakshi share opening-day lead at DLF