India’s Pranavi Urs moved a step closer to event leader Shannon Tan of Singappre with a bogey-free second round at the Asian Games golf competition in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Thursday. Image courtesy WGAI.
By Rahul Banerji
Pranavi Urs handed in a flawless card in the Asian Games women’s golf competition to solidify her second place at the Kasugai Country Club on Thursday.
The Mysore golfer’s spectacular 7 under par 63 (11 under 129) helped her move closer to event leader Shannon Tan who now leads by two shots at 13 under 127.
Pranavi opened with a 4 under 66 on Wednesday, and her second day effort also carried India into third place on 7 under 273 behind China (12 under 268) and Singapore (11 under 269) in the team standings with two rounds to go.
Behind the lead Indian, Diksha Dagar (71-73) was tied for 21st place on 4 over 144, while Aditi Ashok (71-74) shared 25th place on 5 over 145.
In the men’s event, Saptak Talwar (66-68) went from tied third on Wednesday to T7 on 6 under 134 behind co-leaders Wang We Hsuan (65-66) and China’s Ding Wenyi (67-64) on 9 under 131.
Japan’s Kazuki Higa (65-67) and former Hero Indian Open champion Keita Nakajima (66-66) were tied for third.
Japan (264), China (265) and South Korea (266) hold the top three spots in the men’s team competition with India (273) in fifth place, one behind Chinese Taipei (269).
Solid effort
“The game was pretty solid from tee-to-green. Didn’t really have any bad shots. A very good, solid round, and that was that,” Pranavi was quoted as saying after her round.
“I put myself in good positions off the tee, which gave me good numbers to hit approach shots.
“Some of the shots that I got, I was really comfortable with those numbers, and I stuck it in to five fee. Just hitting fairways and greens, that’s always been my game plan.
“Always good to be in contention. Unfortunately, there haven’t been a lot of times where I’ve been in contention on Tour.
“So to kind of get that momentum going towards the Indian Open in a couple weeks is a good sign,” added the 26-year-old.
On Thursday, Pranavi combined precise drives, confident approach play and solid putting to pick up four shots over her first six holes.
She then added a further three birdies on her in-bound nine to complete the bogey-free run.
Tan remains the player to catch with South Korea’s Yunseo Yang and Ruoning Yin now four shots behind Pranavi on 7 under 133 in tied third place.
Talwar slips
On the men’s side, DP World PGTI Order of Merit leader Talwar had five birdies against three dropped shots — two of them late in his round — to return a 2 under 68 on Kasugai’s East Course.
It followed his opening 66 that had him sharing third place.
The other two Indians in the field, Veer Ahlawat (71-68) and Yuvraj Sandhu (71-69), were tied for 16th at 1 under 139 and T22 at level par 140 respectively.
Veer, the 2024 DP World PGTI Order of Merit champion, made five birdies including three on the trot and three bogeys in his second round.
Yuvraj, the 2025 DP World PGTI Order of Merit champion, made three birdies and two bogeys.
Team standings are determined by the aggregate of the best two individual scores from each country in every round in both competitions.
Also read: Pranavi, Talwar make top-three starts at Asiad golf competition
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