Neha Tripathi holds opening round lead at Golden Greens

By Rahul Banerji 

Tenth leg winner Neha Tripathi led after the opening day of the 12^th Leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at Golden Greens Golf Club near Gurgaon on Wednesday.

Neha dropped a shot on hole 17still held a one-shot lead after the first round on 4 under par 68 with Gaurika Bishnoi and Anisha Agarwala sharing second place one shot behind.

In July, Neha, ended a wait of more than four and a half years when she won the 10^th leg of the Hero WPGT, the tour said.

Riya Yadav, who had an eagle and a hole-in-one in the space of four holes, and Ridhima Dilawari shot 2-under 70s each.

Asmitha Sathish was the other player to go under par at 1-under 71 in sixth place.

Tvesa Malik, who had a bogey and a triple bogey on the first and second holes, scored 3-over 75 for shared 13^th place.

Neha had birdies on the second and the fourth holes and added a third birdie on the ninth to turn in 3-under. An eagle on the 11^th then took her to 5-under.

Lone blemish

A string of pars over the next five holes then followed with her lone bogey on hole 17.

Anisha had a steady front nine with one birdie and no bogeys. She dropped a double on 10, but recovered immediately with an eagle on 11.

A bogey on 12 was followed by three pars and three birdies in the last three holes for a roller-coaster ride on the back nine.

Gaurika had three birdies on either side of the Golden Greens course, but also dropped shots on the first, 10th and 11th holes.

Riya Yadav had a memorable round that had a bogey in her first four holes followed by an eagle on the par-5 fifth.

She then racked up a hole-in-one on the par-3 eighth and followed that with a birdie on nine to make the turn in 4-under 32.

On the back nine, she had a double bogey on 13 and bogey on 14 but closed with a birdie on 18. 

Scores and round 2 tee times

Tee 1

7:30 am: Ishvari Prasanna 76, Shweta Mansingh 75

7:40 am: Lavanya Jadon (A) 75, Nishna Patel (A) 75

7:50 am: Saanvi Somu (A) 75, Tvesa Malik 75, Ananya Datar 75

8 am: Kriti Chowhan 75, Trimann Saluja 75, Gauri Karhade 75

8:10 am: Khushi Khanijau 74 Durga Nittur 74 Agrima Manral 74

8:20 am: Jyotsana Singh 73, Smriti Bhargav (A) 73, Jasmine Shekar 72

8:30 am: Asmitha Sathish 71, Ridhima Dilawari 70, Riya Yadav 70

8:40 am: Gaurika Bishnoi 69, Anisha Agarwalla 69, Neha Tripathi 68

Tee 10

7:30 am: Geetika Ahuja 77, Shagun Narain 77, Ravjot K Dosanjh 78

7:40 am: Sneha Singh 78, Hitaashee Bakshi 79, Seher Atwal 79

7:50 am: Nayanika Sanga 80, Nandita Kumar (A) 80, Suchitra Ramesh 80

8 am: Rhea Jha 81, Riya Jadon (A) 81, Sachika Singh 81

8:10 am: Rhea Purvi S. 81, Yaalisai Verma 82, Saaniya Sharma 82

8:20 am: Karishma Govind 82, Snigdha Goswami 83, Khushi 91

Also read: US tour hopeful Sneha back in action as Hero WPGT resumes