Nishna Patel holds on to win opening leg of Hero WPGT season

By Rahul Banerji

Nishna Patel capped a start to finish run to win the opening event of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2024 season at the Poona Club course on Friday.

The Mumbai amateur needed a final hole birdie to beat off her closest rivals, professionals Sneha Singh and Hitaashee Bakshi who tied for second place, the WGAI said.

The 54^th-hole birdie gave Nishna a 1-under 70 card for the day and a 6 under par 207 total as Sneha (67) and Hitaashee (69) stranded on 5-under 208s at the par-71 PCGC course.

Nishna, who had the two professionals for company in the lead group, began the day with a two-shot lead over Hitaashee and four shots up on Sneha.

And it was 2023 Hero Order of Merit winner, Sneha who got off to a flying start with three birdies on the trot before adding two more before the turn to make the turn on 5 shots under par and holding a one-shot lead.

Setting the pace

Nishna with one birdie and one bogey on the front nine suddenly found herself behind Sneha, who then stretched the lead to two shots with a sixth birdie.

Nishna hung on and birdied the next hole to cut the gap to one. It stayed like that till the end of hole 16, that all three players in the lead group bogeyed.

With two holes to go, Sneha faltered with a dropped shot on 17 that Nishna parred to draw level with the day’s leader. On 18, Nishna found a birdie and Sneha managed only a par.

Hitaashee too had a chance to force a play-off, but she failed to find a birdie on the two closing holes and ended in a tie for second with Sneha.

It gave Nishna a well-deserved maiden title on the pro circuit, while still being an amateur, to keep up the tradition of at least one win by an amateur every year since 2017.

Fellow amateur, Mannat Brar (70) finished in a tie for fourth place with Seher Atwal (71) on level par 213.

Amandeep Drall finally found a sub-par round with a 2-under 69 and took a respectable sixth place on 3 over 216, while Ananya Datar (75) was seventh.

Jasmine Shekar (75), Ananya Garg (75) and Khushi Khanijau (78) were tied for eighth on 8 over 221 while Neha Tripathi (71) and Rhea Jha (76) tied for 11th place.

The second leg will be held at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club from January 16 to 18.

Also read: Nishna in the lead going into final round of Pune WPGT event