Amandeep grabs early lead; Atwal goes 9 under at PGA Tour qualifier

By Rahul Banerji

Winless so far this season, Amandeep Drall overcame a late double bogey to take a two-shot lead on the opening day of the ninth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Prestige Golfshire course near Bangalore on Wednesday.

Amandeep was two under with two holes to go on the challenging course, which also hosted the previous leg last month, before double-bogeying the par-3 17^th hole to end with 72.

It was the only level par card on a difficult and windy day.

Ridhima Dilawari, Afshan Fatima and Suchitra Ramesh were 2-over 74 and in tied second place while Gaurika Bishnoi had one birdie in her 75 and was fifth.

Khushi Khanijau and Gursimar Badwal were tied for sixth with 76s and Neha Tripathi (77) was eighth. Siddhi Kapoor and Astha Madan rounded off the top 10 with rounds of 78 each.

Late disappointment

Amandeep, twice a runner-up this season, had three birdies against bogey in her front nine. She dropped another shot after the turn but picked up a birdie again to get to two under. Then came the disappointing double bogey.

Afshan had four birdies against six bogeys in an eventful round, while Ridhima, one of the three players to have won twice this year, had three birdies and three bogeys with a double bogey as well. 

Suchitra Ramesh had three birdies and five bogeys, three of which came in a stretch of four holes.

Tee times for Round 2

8 am: Oviya Reddi 86, Anousha Tripathi 85;

8:10 am: Gauri Karhade 85, Sonam Chugh 84, Rhea P. Saravanan (A) 84;

8:20 am:  Ayesha Kapur 83, Ananya Datar 82, Mehar Atwal 82;

8:30 am: Millie Saroha 81, Ishvari Prasanna 81, Smriti Mehra 81;

8:40 am: Sneha Sharan (A) 81, Tanirika Singh 80, Jyotsana Singh 80;

8:50 am: Ananya Barthakur (A) 79, Shriya Vivek 79, Astha Madan 78;

9:00 am: Siddhi Kapoor 78, Neha Tripathi 77, Gursimar Badwal 76;

9:10 am: Khushi Khanijau 76, Gaurika Bishnoi 75, Ridhima Dilawari 74;

9:20 am: Suchitra Ramesh 74, Afshan Fatima 74, Amandeep Drall 72.

Arjun Atwal turns the clock back

Overcoming a back problem for which he had to return home to Kolkata recently, Arjun Atwal qualified for this week’s 3M Open PGA Tour event with an eye-popping 9-under round and shared first place in Monday’s qualifier.

Atwal will join Anirban Lahiri in the main draw and will aim to not only turn the clock back to 2010 when he won the Wyndham Championship as a Monday qualifier, bit also join a more recent achiever of the feat in Corey Connors (Texas Valero Open).

Atwal was in fact the last Monday qualifier to win a PGA Tour title till Connors did so this April, a gap of nine years.

Incidentally, Atwal’s Wyndham title remains the only PGA Tour title win by an Indian.

On his way to a 9-under card, Atwal also sank a 60-foot putt. In all, he had eight birdies and an eagle on a course he had not even set eyes on before, relying entirely on his caddie who had made a recce of the Minnesota venue the previous day.

Daniel Chopra finished 4-under par, not enough to make the qualifying grade.

Also read: Lahiri books US Open berth with second place finish in qualifier