Bogey-free run has Avani in second place at Abu Dhabi WATC

By Rahul Banerji

Avani Prashanth kept another clean sheet to share second place with South Korea’s Kyorim Seo after two rounds of the 30th Espirito Santo Trophy at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Thursday.

The two-time national champion shot a second successive 4 under 68 to sit two shots behind new leader Navaporn Soontreeyapas of Thailand (69-65), who led the 108-strong field with a 10-under 134.

In the overall World Amateur Team Championship standings, India were tied for seventh place on 6 under 142 with Germany and Canada after starting in a share of fourth overnight.

At the top in the team event, Australia and Thailand posted 10-under 134s to climb into a three-way tie with Spain, jumping six places for a share of the lead on 13-under 275 after Round 2.

Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and 2023 South Australia Women’s Amateur champion Justice Bosio combined for 10 birdies and no bogeys for the Australians. While the former shared fourth place one shot behind Avani, Hinson-Tolchard was T6 after 36 holes.

Mannat Brar (72-74) was tied 49^th and the second Indian counting score behind Avani (68-68) while Nishna Patel was in a share of 94^th place.

Good momentum

“It’s good momentum going into the next two days,” said Hinson-Tolchard, a 2023 US Women’s Open qualifier, according to the International Golf Federation website.

“I got off to a hot start. I sunk two good putts to start the day and steadied out a little and then made a 40-footer on [hole] 13, and just kept cruising home.”

Navaporn Soontreeyapas led a late-afternoon charge for Thailand, birdieing four of her final seven holes to post a 7-under 65, the lowest round of the competition thus far.

Soontreeyapas, the 2023 Singapore Open Amateur champion, held a two-shot advantage on the individual leaderboard at 10-under-par 134.

“Today was kind of like moving day for us,” said Soontreeyapas. “I felt good, my putting was very good.”

Thailand, who finished tied for 20th a year ago in France, added a bogey-free, 3-under 69 from Suvichaya Vinijchaitham.

Spain’s Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, number two on the World Amateur Golf Ranking and Julia Ramirez, WAGR no. 5, both posted 69s, while teammate Carla Bernat Escuder added a non-counting 70.

Heavy hitters

Spain, who held the first-round lead by a shot, were the only team with all three players inside the top 10 of the championship’s individual scoring.

“We’re hitting really good shots, but we just need to convert those into birdies,” said Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, who earned a top-5 finish in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April.

“We have confidence in ourselves. This was not our best day, but we are still one of the leaders. It’s great, but it could be better.”

South Korea stayed solo fourth place on 11-under 277, two shots off the leaders, with England and the United States sharing fifth on 7-under 281.  

According to the tournament statistics, Avani is the only player in the field yet to make a bogey or worse, which puts her Hero Women’s Indian Open performance last week, where she finished in the top five.

Incidentally, the National Course at Abu Dhabi Golf Club is playing to a yardage of 6,497 yards this week for the Espirito Santo Trophy, which makes it the longest course in WWATC history. 

Also read: Avani shares opening day WATC lead, Jaglan T9 in Melbourne