By Rahul Banerji
Making a rare appearance on the WGAI professional tour, Ladies European Tour card-holder Diksha Dagar and Ridhima Dilawari shared the lead on 3-under par 69s with Tvesa Malik and Gaurika Bishnoi on 71s after the first round of the 14th leg of the Hero Tour at Noida Golf Course on Wednesday.
With four players bringing in sub-par rounds, the final two rounds should see a strong tussle as the season comes to its closing stages with the final event at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.
Diksha, who teed off in the first group, got a first birdie on the second hole, but gave it back on the par-4 sixth.
Consistent display
Back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth ensured she turned in 2-under 34 for the front nine. A string of pars, including a few solid saves, were capped by another birdie on the day’s last hole to round off an impressive day.
A three-time winner this year, Ridhima, playing three groups after Diksha, opened with a birdie, but gave back the gain with a bogey on the next hole.
Seven pars after that saw her turn in even par before she found some rhythm on the back nine. A birdie on 11th followed by back-to-back picks on 17th and 18th ensured she would give Diksha company at the top of the leader-board.
Tvesa, who like Ridhima, has won three times in 2019, finished strongly with three birdies over the last five holes to add to the one on the seventh.
However, she also gave away a lot of shots with a double on the 11th and a bogey on 12th.
Costly drops
Gaurika opened birdie-birdie and rode it well till a bogey on the par-5 eighth, which seemed costly. She birdied twice more on the back nine but gave away those shots including a closing bogey.
Amandeep Drall was 75 to sit sole fifth, while Neha Tripathi, Astha Madan and Smriti Mehra were T6 on 77 each. Saaniya Sharma and Ananya Datar completed the top-10 on 78s.
Also read: Drall leads Indian charge into weekend rounds at HWIO 2019