By Rahul Banerji
Ananya Datar chased hard but Tvesa Malik still held on to a comfortable three-shot edge in the 13th Leg of the Hero WPGT event at DLF on Wednesday.
Runaway overnight leader Tvesa carded a 74 on the day to total 5 under 139 after 36 holes while Ananya had closed the gap to 2 under 142.
At one stage Ananya, who shot a second straight 71 was just one behind after 11 holes, at the challenging Gary Player layout which will host the Hero Women’s Indian Open next month.
The rest of the field was way behind.
Khushi Khanijau (75-70) climbed the leaderboard to third place on 1-over 145, while Neha Tripathi (71-75) slipped from overnight joint second to fourth on 2-over 146.
Tvesa dropped shots on the third and eighth holes before she found her first birdie of the day on nine to make the turn in 1-over 37.
Chipping away
Meanwhile, Ananya was 2-under for the front nine as she had three birdies and one bogey in her 2-under 34. The lead between the two was now just three.
On the back nine, when Tvesa bogeyed hole 11 and Ananya birdied, the lead was down to just one shot.
The duo bogeyed 13 and Ananya dropped a shot on 14 to help Tvesa move two ahead. A birdie on the 17 made the lead a handy three for Tvesa as Ananya parred the last four holes.
Khushi had two birdies and two bogeys on the front nine but did much better on the back nine where she had three birdies against one bogey for the day’s best round of 2-under 70.
Neha, winner last week, had a difficult front nine with a bogey and a triple bogey offset by one birdie.
Tough stretch
On the back nine, Neha seemed to make up some ground with birdies on 15 and 17, but there was further disaster in the form of a double bogey on 18 and her 75 saw her drop into fourth place.
Jasmine Shekar (72-75) was fifth and Kriti Chowhan (74-76) sixth. Pranav Urs continued to struggle as she added a 75 to her first round 76 for tied seventh alongside Asmitha Sathish (77-74) and Agrima Manral (73-78).
Amateur Mahreen Bhatia, double medallist at US Kids European and US Kids World Championships Golf, improved on her first round 80 with a 73 to force her way into the top 10.
Among the big names lagging behind were Seher Atwal (81-74) at T12 and Sneha Singh (77-79) at T15.
The cut fell at 167 and 27 players made the final 18 holes.
On Thursday, Tvesa Malik will play her final round with Ananya Datar and Khushi Khanijau.
Scores and round 3 tee times
7:10 am: Rhea Purvi S. 167, Oviya Reddi 167, Trimann Saluja 164
7:20 am: Janneya Dasanniee (A) 163, Ravjot K. Dosanjh 163, Lavanya Gupta (A) 162
7:30 am: Hitaashee Bakshi 162, Zara Anand (A) 162, Lavanya Jadon (A) 160
7:45 am: Riya Yadav 159, Saaniya Sharma 158, Sneha Singh 156
7:55 am: Smriti Bhargav (A) 156, Anisha Agarwalla 155, Seher Atwal 155
8:05 am: Jyotsana Singh 155, Durga Nittur 154, Mahreen Bhatia (A) 153
8:20 am: Agrima Manral 151, Pranavi Urs 151, Asmitha Sathish 151
8:30 am: Kriti Chowhan 150, Jasmine Shekar 147, Neha Tripathi 146
8:40 am: Khushi Khanijau 145, Ananya Datar 142, Tvesa Malik 139
Also read: Tvesa goes bogey-free to open six-shot lead after Day 1 at DLF
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