By Rahul Banerji
With a season-opening start behind her, Mumbai amateur Nishna Patel will be looking for another good week at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club in the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour from Wednesday.
Nishna produced a sterling finish to beat professionals Sneha Singh and Hitaashee Bakshi in the first leg at Pune to give herself a big confidence boost.
The field includes Vani Kapoor, who will be looking to assess her form before setting off to play a few events on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, where she will be joined by Amandeep Drall who is also in the field, and others.
Neha Tripathi, Seher Atwal and Ridhima Dilawari are also hoping to find form and rhythm early in the season before playing on the international tours in the coming months.
While Vani and Ridhima did not play last week, Seher was tied fourth, Amandeep was sixth and Neha just outside the top 10.
Top contenders
Sneha, the Hero 2023 Order of Merit winner and Hitaashee will continue to be top contenders this week. The amateurs and seasoned pros apart, there are quite a few young and upcoming players keen to make an impact.
The field consists of 33 professionals and six amateurs, playing for a purse of Rs 12 lakh.
Of the amateurs, national champion Vidhatri Urs and Mannat Brar are also due to play the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific early next month, so this will be a good tune-up.
Last week Nishna was the winner and Mannat was tied for fourth, indicating that amateurs have now become a force to reckon with on the pro Tour.
Round 1 tee times
8 am: Gauri Karhade; Sneha Singh; Hitaashee Bakshi
8:10 am: Shweta Mansingh; Rhea Purvi Saravanan; Karishma Govind
8:20 am: Shagun Narain; Anisha Agarwalla; Rhea Jha
8:30 am: Ravjot K. Dosanjh; Agrima Manral; Ananya Datar
8:40 am: Amandeep Drall; Ananya Garg; Ishvari Prasanna
8:55 am: Jahaanvie Walia; Jyotsana Singh; Neha Tripathi
9:05 am: Khushi Khanijau; Bhuvika Bhise (A); Vidhatri Urs (A)
9:15 am: Aradhana Manikandan (A); Ridhima Dilawari; Yaalisai Verma
9:25 am: Mannat Brar (A); Vani Kapoor; Mehar Atwal
9:40 am: Taniya Balasuriya; Nishna Patel (A); Snigdha Goswami
9:50 am: Anuradha Chaudhuri (A); Disha Kavery; Seher Atwal
10 am: Sachika Singh; Riya Yadav; Anaggha Venkatesh
10:10 am: Oviya Reddi; Khushi; Jasmine Shekar
Also read: Nishna Patel holds on to win opening leg of Hero WPGT season
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