Gaurika Bishnoi heads field as Hero WPGT resumes at DLF

By Rahul Banerji

Gaurika Bishnoi will look to get some valuable tournament practice as she tees up at the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf & Country Club.

With Aditi Ashok giving women’s golf at home such a huge boost with her performance at the Tokyo Olympics, Indian golfers have started to explore greener pastures.

Tvesa Malik has been making steady progress while Diksha Dagar too holds partial playing rights in Europe.

While Vani Kapoor, Ridhima Dilawari and Amandeep Drall are already in the Continent, Gaurika is also shortly scheduled to play some events on the Ladies European Tour,

Gaurika leads the field as the WPGT resumes after a five-month break, the sixth leg played at Jaipur’s Rambagh Golf Club which Tvesa won and Jahnavi Bakshi finished second.

The Gurgaon-based Gaurika, who turned 23 in August, was not at her best when the first segment of the Tour was held between January and before the pandemic forced a halt. Now she is looking to make amends.

Happy hunting ground

However, Gaurika has good memories of the DLF course where she has had two wins, one each in 2018 and 2019. Her last win on the Hero WPGT came in 2019 in the seventh leg at Clover Greens in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

Gaurika will have to contend with the Bakshi sisters, Jahanvi and Hitaashee, who have shown a lot of promise in the last couple of seasons, as also experienced Neha Tripathi and Seher Atwal.

Both Jahanvi and Hitaashee have already clocked up wins and have set their sights on the Ladies European Tour in the future.

Of the amateurs, Avani Prashanth has shown a lot of promise and could be the one to watch out for along with national amateur champion Sneha Singh.

Even as amateurs, both have a win each on the pro circuit to their names.

The Hero Order of Merit has been combined for the 2021 season along with the truncated 2020 season and is currently led by Amandeep Drall.

Round 1 tee times

8:10 am: Suchitra Ramesh; Ananya Datar; Hitaashee Bakshi;

8:20 am: Avani Prashanth (A); Rhea Jha; Afshan Fatima;

8:30 am: Sneha Singh (A); Jyotsana Singh; Geetika Ahuja;

8:45 am: Gaurika Bishnoi; Zara Anand (A); Neha Tripathi;

8:55 am: Disha Kavery; Jahanvi Bakshi; Rishika Muralidhar (A);

9:05 am: Anisha Agarwalla; Oviya Reddi; Rhea P. Saravanan;

9:20 am: Mehar Atwal; Trimann Saluja; Khushi Khanijau;

9:30 am: Siddhi Kapoor; Shweta Mansingh; Khushi Hooda (A);

9:40 am: Nishna Patel (A); Lakhmehar Pardesi; Seher Atwal;

Also read: Women’s Pro Golf Tour back in action from Aug. 30 at DLF GCC