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

By Rahul Banerji

Amateur golfer Nishna Patel held on to her overnight lead with a level par 71 in Thursday’s second round of the season-opening Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour event in Pune.

At the Poona Club Golf Course, the Mumbai player swapped one birdie for a bogey to total 5-under 137, two shots clear of Hitaashee Bakshi, the WGAI said.

The best-placed professional on the leaderboard, Hitaashee shot a 1-under 70 which allowed her to narrow the gap between herself and Nishna to two shots.

With the Hero WPGT having produced at least one amateur winner every year since 2017, Nishna could keep that trend going if she holds on to her lead on Friday.

Hitaashee had four birdies against three bogeys. Three of those gains came on the front nine and she is now 3-under 139 after 36 holes.

Sneha Singh (69) and Seher Atwal (68), who had the day’s best round, made good gains on the leaderboard. Sneha had a run of three birdies from the sixth to the ninth hole but back-to-back bogeys around the turn pulled her back.

Making up

The Hyderabad player made up with two more birdies to hand in a card of 69 and is 1-under 141 with the final 18 holes to go.

Seher, who won the opening leg of the previous season, had five birdies against two bogeys in her 68 and how has a level par 142 total.

Another amateur, Mannat Brar (74) slipped to tied fifth alongside Khushi Khanijau (71) on 1-over 143.

Ananya Datar (71), Ananya Garg (72), Rhea Jha (73) and Jasmine Shekar (74) were tied for seventh on 4-over 146, while the seasoned Amandeep Drall (74) was tied 11^th alongside amateur Anuradha Chaudhuri (77).

The latter was tied fourth overnight but lost ground with her 6 over card on the day.

The cut fell at 152, with 19 professionals and three amateurs making it through to the final round.

With the final group featuring Nishna, Hitaashee and Sneha, and Seher also in the race, the final round could produce a tight finish to the opening leg of the new season.

Scores and round 3 tee times

8:30 am: Yaalisai Verma 152; Gauri Karhade 152

8:40 am: Neha Tripathi 151; Snigdha Goswami 151

8:50 am: Jahaanvie Walia 151; Agrima Manral 151; Saaniya Sharma 150

9 am: Rhea Purvi Saravanan 150; Anisha Agarwalla 150; Shweta Mansingh 149

9:10 am: Anuradha Chaudhuri (A) 147; Amandeep Drall 147; Jasmine Shekar 146

9:25 am: Rhea Jha 146; Ananya Garg 146; Ananya Datar 146

9:35 am: Mannat Brar (A) 143; Khushi Khanijau 143; Seher Atwal 142

9:45 am; Sneha Singh 141; Hitaashee Bakshi 139; Nishna Patel (A) 137

Also read: Amateurs hold sway on opening day of 2024 WPGT season