Badwal bombs birdies at Clover Greens for outright lead

By Rahul Banerji 

Gursimar Badwal went on a birdie rampage, picking up eight shots against two bogeys in the second round of the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour to open up a four-shot lead over the field at the Clover Greens in Hosur on Thursday.

She carded six-under 66 to equal the season’s best round by Neha Tripathi in the second round of the first leg at the Poona Club Golf Course and Ridhima Dilawari’s 66 at the Jaypee Greens in the sixth leg.

Gursimar, who won the second leg and was third in the fifth leg, is now four clear of Gaurika Bishnoi, who followed up her first round 71 with a 2-under 70. Overnight leader Amandeep Drall added another 71 for a seventh successive sub-par round on the course.

Tvesa Malik (70) and Millie Saroha (71) were tied for fourth at level par 144.

Sub-par rounds

As many as seven players went under par and another three were on par for the second round. The top three were under par for 36 holes and two more were on level par totals.

The star of the day was Gursimar, who set the pace with a blistering front nine. She had early back-to-back birdies followed up with two more to turn in 4-under 33.

Having birdied each of the three par-5s, Badwal soon got to 5-under but dropped her first shot immediately.

A hat-trick of birdies followed and at that stage she was seven-under with four holes to go. Badwal, however, bogeyed the 16th and parred the rest for a 66 and a total of 7-under 137.

Gaurika had a sedate front nine with one bogey and was still one-over after 11 holes. She then birdied twice to get into red numbers.

Another birdie brought Gaurika to 2-under before she traded a bogey with a birdie in the last two holes to sign in for 70 and a total of 141.

Falling away

Amandeep Drall dropped to third place as she birdied three holes and bogeyed twice for a 71 and a 2-under 142. Amandeep has won the last two Hero WPGT events at Clover Greens, both in 2018.

Amateur Pranavi Urs (69), Tvesa Malik (70), Millie Saroha (71) and another amateur Asmitha Sathish (70) carded sub-par rounds, while Astha Madan, Jyotsana Singh and Sonam Chugh carded 72s each.

Gursimar had the best front nine of 4-under 33 while amateur Asmitha was the best on the back nine with a 4-under 31.

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