Four tied for opening day lead at Hero WPGT Bangalore event

A combo visual of the four day one leaders at the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour event in Bangalore on Tuesday. Image courtesy WGAI.

By Rahul Banerji

Newly-minted pro Anvitha Narender and 2023 Hero order of Merit topper Sneha Singh, were among the four opening day leaders at the eighth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Anvitha and Sneha shared the lead with Rhea Jha and amateur Lavanya Jadon on 1 under par 69 at the Bangalore Golf Club, the WGAI said.

Seher Atwal followed them on level par while amateur Saanvi Somu, Gaurabi Bhowmick and Snigdha Goswami carded 71s on a crowded leaderboard.

Vidhatri Urs, third on her pro debut last week shared ninth place on 72 with Disha Kavery and Rhea Purvi Saravanan.

A week after new pro Vidhatri had taken the first-round lead in the seventh leg, Anvitha, also playing only her second event as a pro, found herself in the lead bunch after 18 holes.

Anvitha had a birdie on hole 9 and a bogey on 10, and then birdied 16 and 18 with a dropped shot in between.

Mixed bag

Rhea Jha had four birdies against three dropped shots, while Sneha had six birdies, including two on the first two holes and five bogeys, two of them on the two closing holes for her 69.

Lavanya Jadon, who has been showing a lot of promise on the amateur circuit, dropped a double bogey on the second and a bogey on the fourth to be 3-over after four holes.

She ten staged a comeback with five birdies to get to 2-under before a late bogey on the tough Par-5 17^th pulled her back to 1-under.

Seher had three each of birdies and bogeys and was just one behind the leading quartet.

Last week’s winner Gaurika Bishnoi, who had two birdies on the front nine, dropped double bogeys on holes 12 and 14 and closed with a bogey on 18 for a 3-over 73.

Hitaashee Bakshi, flying in from the Singapore Ladies Masters where she was third on Sunday, had a rough day.

Arriving late for a practice round on Monday, she had seven pars to begin with as she missed a few makeable birdie putts.

She then went out of bounds on the Par-5 eighth and had a triple bogey followed by a bogey. Two more bogeys meant she was six-over and without a birdie on the card in a share of 22^nd place. 

Round 1 scores and tee times

7:30 am: Geetika Ahuja 84, Marshneil Prasad 83, Krishaa Nichani (A) 82

7:40 am: Shagun Narain 81, Ishvari Prasanna 81, Sachika Singh 81

7:50 am: Jyotsana Singh 80, Anaggha Venkatesh 79, Anisha Agarwalla 78

8 am: Anuradha Chaudhuri 78, Yaalisai Verma 78, Shweta Mansingh 77

8:10 am: Karishma Govind 77, Jasmine Shekar 77, Hitaashee Bakshi 76

8:25 am: Astha Madan 76, Chitrangada Singh 76, Riya Yadav 76

8:35 am: Gauri Karhade 75, Khushi Khanijau 75, Jahaanvie Walia 75

8:45 am: Agrima Manral 74, Amandeep Drall 74, Prakruthi N. Sastry (A) 74

8:55 am: Ananya Garg 74. Keerthana Rajeev (A) 74, Ravjot K. Dosanjh 74

9:10 am: Gaurika Bishnoi 73, Rhea Purvi S. 72, Vidhatri Urs 72

9:20 am: Disha Kavery 72, Saanvi Somu (A) 71, Snigdha Goswami 71

9:30 am: Gourabi Bhowmick 71, Seher Atwal 70, Lavanya Jadon (A) 69

9:40 am: Sneha Singh 69, Anvitha Narender 69, Rhea Jha 69

Also read: Gaurika, Hitaashee face off in BGC leg of Hero WPG Tour