By Rahul Banerji
Pranavi Urs spreadeagled the field with a devastating display to create an eight-shot cushion on day two of the seventh Hero WPGT leg at Prestige Golfshire on Thursday.
Coming back from an injury that hobbled her run after two early wins in the season, the Mysore golfer has so far chalked up 15 birdies against two bogeys and a double over her two opening rounds.
On Thursday, Pranavi added a 6-under 66 to go one better than her opening round of 5-under 67 for an 11-under 133 aggregate.
She now leads second-placed Jahanvi Bakshi (72-69, 141) by eight shots and looks well poised to add a third win for the season to her resume.
The 19-year-old looks to have fully recovered from a muscle tear that forced her to withdraw from the Asian Games trials also in Bangalore last month.
The Games have incidentally been postponed for a year after a fresh Covid outbreak in China, the host nation.
A year earlier, a wrist injury forced Pranavi to take time off from golf.
Leading Jahanvi by five shots after the first round, Pranavi birdied the third and ninth holes on the front nine to turn in 2-under.
For her part, Jahanvi had two birdies and a bogey over the same stretch.
Hot streak
On the back nine, Pranavi dropped her only shot of the day on the par-4 12th, but found five birdies over the next six holes including four on the trot from 15 to 18 for a superb 66.
Jahanvi had two more birdies on the back nine for a 69, which was the second best card of the day along with that of amateur Heena Kang (77-69).
Asmitha Sathish, who had a 2-under 70 on Wednesday, was level par in the second round with two bogeys against two birdies for third place nine shots behind Pranavi.
Amateur Vidhatri Urs (71-72) was fourth while Siddhi Kapoor (72-72) was fifth.
Amateur Heena Kang, Jyotsana Singh (72-74), Ridhima Dilawari (72-74) and Neha Tripathi (72-74) were T6 on 2-over 146s. Durga Nittur (76-72) and Trimann Saluja (73-75) were tied for 10th.
Twenty-four players made the cut which fell at 155 with Lakhmehar Pardesi, Anaggha Venkatesh, Rhea Purvi Saravanan, Agrima Manral and Marshneil Prasad missing out.
Suchitra Ramesh withdrew due to medical reasons.
Scores and round 3 tee times
Tee 1
12:20 pm: Shweta Mansingh 149; Trimann Saluja 148; Durga Nittur 148
12:30 pm: Neha Tripathi 146; Ridhima Dilawari 146; Jyotsana Singh 146
12:40 pm: Heena Kang (A) 146; Siddhi Kapoor 144; Vidhatri Urs (A) 143
12:50 pm: Asmitha Sathish 142; Jahanvi Bakshi 141; Pranavi Urs 133
Tee 10
12:20 pm: Seher Atwal 149; Khushi Khanijau 149; Rhea Jha 150
12:30 pm: Afshan Fatima 150; Rishika Muralidhar (A) 150; Gauri Karhade 151
12:40 pm: Jia Kataria (A) 152; Ishvari Prasanna 152; Saanvi Somu (A) 153
12:50 pm: Astha Madan 153; Jahnavi Prakhya (A) 154; Disha Kavery 155
Also read: Pranavi Urs opens useful three-shot lead in Golfshire first round
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