By Rahul Banerji
With the 2018 Hero Women’s Indian Open (HWIO) less than two weeks away, home players are looking to make the most of their advantage.
The 15th and 16th legs of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour were scheduled at the HWIO venue, the DLF Golf and Country Club where Tvesa Malik completed a hat-trick of wins for the season on Friday.
It made her the second player to do so in the season.
In the final round, Tvesa had a flawless run on the Gary Player layout with two birdies and a bogey. It makes her one of the main Indian challengers for the HWIO in two weeks time.
Tvesa was steady at crucial points for the second time in three days. The win also made her only the second player this season to win three titles on the Hero WPGT.
Early lead
With the field starting from the tenth tee this week, Tvesa held a three-shot lead over Gaurika Bishnoi and was four ahead of amateur Diksha Dagar when they came to the back nine.
At that point, Smriti Mehra was her closest rival one shot behind.
Tvesa had one birdie and eight pars while Smriti had a roller-coaster stretch with two birdies, three bogeys and a double for a 39.
Gaurika and Diksha went one better than Tvesa, but their 34s were not enough to bridge the gap Tvesa had opened up.
Tvesa also leads the Hero Order of Merit.
Day’s best
She finished the week at 2-over 218 and won by two shots over Gaurika, who returned the day’s best card of 2-under 70 and totaled 4-over 220.
Tvesa has had an exceptional season with three wins and five second place finishes. On four other occasions she has been third, which means she has been in the Top-3 no less than 12 times in 15 starts.
Vani Kapoor, T6 at the HWIO last year, had a disappointing week with rounds of 75, 75 and 74 for sole sixth place.
Rayhan on song
In Singapore, Rayhan Thomas brought home the day’s best card of 6-under 64 in the 120-player field for the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championships at the New Tanjong Golf Course.
Three of the day’s six best cards were from the Indians in the second round of the event. Thomas’ 64 was also the best-ever by an Indian at an AAC event in its 10 years.
Two other Indians shot 4-under 66s each to ensure three Indians in the Top-15 of the elite event, which sends the winner to the Masters and The Open next year. Five of the six Indians made the cut.
Left-handed Kartik Sharma who plays at the DLF, had a bogeyfree 66 to be the best Indian at 3-under 137 and Tied-12th.
Thomas (74-64), who improved his first round by 10 shots, is 2-under 138 alongside Yuvraj Sandhu (72-66), whose coach Jesse Grewal also trains Shubhankar Sharma and Ajeetesh Sandhu.
Pro plans
Both Thomas and Sandhu, who plans to turn pro immediately after this week, are Tied-15th.
Kartik was five behind co-leaders Cheng Jin (67), the 2015 AAC Champion, and Philippines Lloyd Jefferson Go (67), Thomas and Sandhu are six behind.
“Five or six shots is gettable,” said a confident Sandhu.
“I will turn pro next week, unless I win over the next two days, in which case I must stay amateur to play the two Majors.”
Two other Indians making the cut were Kshitij Naveed Kaul (69-76) in Tied-50 and Ahmedabad-based Varun Parikh (73-73).
Read also: Bahamas golf scholarship for promising Karnataka teen Pranavi Urs