Gursimar opens five-shot lead in second leg of Hero WPG Tour

By Rahul Banerji

Gursimar Badwal, who won twice last season, played her best round in more than 18 months to open up a massive five-shot lead at the end of the first round of the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Oxford Golf Resort in Pune on Wednesday.

Gursimar last shot a 68 at Prestige Golfshire in Bengaluru in the ninth leg of the 2017 season when she won back-to-back events. On Wednesday, Kapurthala’s Gursimar, who turns 26 in a month’s time, had five birdies against one bogey on the par-72 Oxford course.

Bunched up

A group of four, led by last week’s winner Neha Tripathi, and including Gaurika Bishnoi, Amandeep Drall and rookie Sifat Alag, trailed by five shots on 1-over 73. 

Tvesa Malik, winner of the 2018 Hero Order of Merit and playing her first event of 2019, shot 74 and could well have been in the second-placed bunch but for a closing bogey.

Gursimar began with a string of five pars before finding birdies on the par-4 sixth and par-3 eighth to turn in two-under. On the back nine, she added an early birdie but gave away her only shot of the day two holes later. She made up with a birdie on the next hole and closed the day with a birdie.

Amandeep, who had three wins last season in four starts midway through the season, was fourth last week with 72-72 in the final two rounds. On the day, she had three birdies against four bogeys while Neha had two birdies and three bogeys in the first 12 holes and parred the last six.

Gaurika Bishnoi could have been at par after birdies on 16th and 17th, but a bogey on 18th meant she went over par for the day.

Steady round

Sifat Alag, who had a disappointing professional debut last week, made amends with a good start that saw her play steadily for one birdie and two bogeys, all of which came in the first five holes. The remaining holes produced 13 straight pars for her 73.

Tvesa was the only player other than Gursimar to be under-par for the front nine, at one-under 35 with two birdies and a bogey. However, she dropped three shots, one each on 10th, 12th and 18th and finished at two-overt 74.

Suchitra Ramesh and Afshan Fatima carded 76s to be tied-seventh, while the experienced Smriti Mehra and rookie Ananya Datar shot 78 each to be Tied-ninth.

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