Amandeep Drall is early leader at Clover Greens leg of Hero WPGT

Amandeep Drall set the early pace at the Clover Greens leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour on Wednesday. Image courtesy WGAI.

By Rahul Banerji

Amandeep Drall fired her way into the opening day’s lead at the Clover Greens leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Hosur near Bangalore on Wednesday.

The experienced golfer, who is working her way back to the kind of form that gave her a bunch of wins at home, opened with a fine 3 under par 69 in the tour’s ninth leg, the WGAI said.

Amandeep dropped shots on holes 16 and 17 but still gave herself a handy two-shot lead over the seasoned Neha Tripathi and Seher Atwal, who carded 1 under 71s each.

Vidhatri Urs, Anaggha Venkatesh; Jasmine Shekar, Sneha Singh and Jahaanvie Walia shot level par 72s to share fourth place.

With one win in her eights starts so far, Amandeep made a modest start, with one birdie and a bogey after the first seven holes.

Good run

She then had a great run from holes eight to 12 with four birdies, including three in a row. Towards the end, she added a birdie on 15 to be 5-under for the day before giving away the two late shots.

Neha had a good run of four birdies in the middle of the round from the ninth to the 12th holes besides one other birdie against four bogeys.

Seher Atwal had four birdies against three bogeys, three of which came between holes nine and 12

Amateur Saanvi Somu, a four-time runner-up, was the top amateur with a 73 that included one of the day’s three eagles. She also had one birdie, two bogeys and a double on her card.

Karishma Govind and amateur Ayushi Dutta also recorded eagles on the same hole, the par-5 second.

Saanvi was T9 alongside Kriti Chowhan and Lavanya Jadon on 73 while Ridhima Dilawari, Gauri Karhade, Durga Nittur and Anvvi Dahhiya were tied for 12^th on 2 over 74.

Order of Merit leader and four-time winner this season, Vani Kapoor, struggled to a 3 over 75 with three birdies against four bogeys and a double for a T16 placing, eight shots off the pace.

Scores and round two tee times

8 am: Chitrangada Singh 87, Rhea Jha 81

8:10 am: Oviya Reddi 80, Riya Jadon (A) 79

8:20 am: Alysha Dutt (A) 78, Ananya Datar 78, Shrestha Shukla 78

8:30 am: Ayushi Dutta (A) 77, Rhea Purvi Saravanan 77, Khushi Khanijau 77

8:40 am: Karishma Govind 76, Agrima Manral 76, Diya C. Patil (A) 76

8:55 am: Riddhima Singh (A) 76, Gourabi Bhowmick 76, Yashita Raghav 76

9:05 am: Ananya Garg 75, Vani Kapoor 75, Keya K Badugu (A) 75

9:15 am: Ridhima Dilawari 74, Anvvi Dahhiya (A) 74, Durga Nittur 74

9:25 am: Gauri Karhade 74, Lavanya Jadon 73, Kriti Chowhan 73

9:40 am: Saanvi Somu (A) 73, Vidhatri Urs 72, Anaggha Venkatesh 72

9:50 am: Jasmine Shekar 72, Sneha Singh 72, Jahaanvie Walia 72

10 am: Neha Tripathi 71, Seher Atwal 71, Amandeep Drall 69

Also read: Vani, Amandeep, are top draws for Clover Greens WPGT leg