Strong start by Tvesa Malik in HWIO dress-rehearsal

By Rahul Banerji

Carrying the confidence of a shared 13^th place finish at last year’s Hero Women’s Indian Open, Tvesa Malik made a flying start in the Rs 6 lakh 13th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour with a 4-under 68 in Gurgaon.

It gave Tvesa a four-shot lead over Gaurika Bishnoi and Gurjot Badwal, who carded level par 72s each at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Wednesday.

Playing on Gary Player’s Black Knight course, Tvesa reeled off 10 pars in a row, before coming up with three successive birdies.

She dropped one shot thereafter, but quickly regrouped to close birdie-birdie for a 68.

Gearing up

It was a perfect start for Tvesa’s preparations for next month’s marquee event which will be part of the Ladies European Tour for a 10^th time. It was also a solid comeback from a niggle that kept her out of action for 10 weeks.

Last year Tvesa finished tied 13th alongside second-placed Gaurika Bishnoi, who leads the Hero WPGT Order of Merit.

Gaurika started with four pars, before a double bogey and another bogey dented her momentum. Three birdies and six pars though helped Gaurika stabilize her round and a card of 72.

Gurjot Badwal, the younger sister of Gursimar, had three birdies in her round against three dropped shots for her par round on the day.

In the race

LET regular Diksha Dagar and Vani Kapoor, along with last week’s winner Gauri Karhade, were in a group of five in tied fourth place with rounds of 73 along with Neha Tripathi and Gursimar Badwal.

Diksha had two birdies against one bogey, while Vani had three birdies against four bogeys. She dropped three shots in the last six holes.

Neha Tripathi started birdie-birdie and then had a roller-coaster of a round with a total of five birdies against two doubles and two bogeys.

Amateur Khushi Hooda, Siddhi Kapoor and the only three-time winner this season Ridhima Dilawari, were T9 at 76s.

This is the last event before the Hero Women’s Indian Open scheduled for the first week of October.

Round 2 tee times

8:30 am: Oviya Reddi 86, Ananya Datar 85, Jahanvi Bakshi (A) 83

8:40 am: Afshan Fatima 82, Amandeep Drall 81, Khushi Khanijau 80

8:50 am: Ishvari Prasanna 79, Asmitha Sathish (A) 79, Sneha Sharan (A) 78

9 am: Shriya Vivek 78, Ridhima Dilawari 76, Siddhi Kapoor 76

9:10 am: Khushi Hooda (A) 76, Neha Tripathi 73, Gursimar Badwal 73

9:20 am: Vani Kapoor 73, Gauri Karhade 73, Dikshsa Dagar 73

9:30 am: Gurjot Badwal 72, Gaurika Bishnoi 72, Tvesa Malik 68

Sisodia moves into second round lead

Meanwhile, at the Golden Greens Golf Club, Gurgaon-based Shivendra Singh Sisodia, playing on his home course, came up with a 5-under-67 to move into the second round lead in the Tata Steel PGTI Feeder Tour on Wednesday.

Teenaged rookie Karan Pratap Singh, also from Gurgaon, produced a 68 to hold second place on 5-under-139.

The cut fell at 4-over-148 with 36 professionals made the grade.

Sisodia (71-67), a former winner on the Feeder Tour, hit his approach shots with pinpoint precision through the day. He secured an early eagle and then set up a five foot birdie conversion followed by a 10-footer.

Just short

Shivendra, 30, continued the good work on the front nine with a birdie chip-in. He was also just one roll short of his second eagle of the day on the fifth where he settled for a birdie. Sisodia’s only setback came on the closing ninth where he dropped a shot after losing his ball as a result of a poor tee shot.

Shivendra said later, “I did really well with my approach shots and wedges today. It’s my home course, so I knew that even after a slow start in the first round I’ll be able to make up lost ground on day two.

“I’ve not performed up to my expectations so far this year as I’ve not been finishing well in tournaments. I’ve been posting high scores on the last two days. That’s something that I’ve been working on. So hopefully, I can turn it around in the last round tomorrow.”

Clean hitting

Nineteen-year-old Karan Pratap (71-68) made some good up and downs thanks to his excellent wedge-play to sit one shot behind the leader.

Kapurthala’s Ashbeer Saini (69) and Greater Noida’s Arjun Sharma (68) were joint third at 4-under-140.

Feeder Tour Order of Merit leader Anil Bajrang Mane (69) of Mumbai was in tied fifth on 3-under-141 along with Chandigarh’s Rohan Kathuria (68).

Gurgaon’s Md Ezzaz hit a hole-in-one on the eighth during his round of 73 but still missed the cut.

Also read: Hero Women’s Indian Open enters 10th year on LET roster