Pranavi cruises to four-shot victory at Golfshire Hero WPGT leg

By Rahul Banerji

Mysore’s Pranavi Urs eased to her third win of the season in the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Prestige Golfshire near Bangalore on Friday.

The 19-year-old, with cards of 67 and 66 so far, added a level-par 72 on Friday to total 11-under 205 and still win by four shots as closest rival Jahanvi Bakshi failed to make much headway on the final day.

Jahanvi, who started the day eight shots behind Pranavi, had a 1-over 73 to finish on 2-under 214, nine behind the winner.

The golfer bringing in the best card of the day was Asmitha Sathish (67) who moved from third to second place while amateur Vidhatri Urs (71) climbed one place from fourth to third.

Asmitha totalled 7-under 209, while Vidhatri had a total of 2-under 214 for tied third place alongside Jahanvi.

This was Pranavi’s third title of the season, following successes in the opening two legs of the year.

She has also finished second once and cements her place at the top of the Hero Order of Merit.

Pranavi, starting the day with a huge eight-shot lead, birdied the second and fifth holes, but then lapsed with back-to-back bogeys on six and seven to turn in even par 36.

She birdied 10 but dropped a double on 12before picking up another shot on 14. It was her 19^th birdie of the week.

Romping home

Pranavi then closed with four pars to romp home an easy winner.

The week’s solid display underlined that Pranavi seems to have overcome the injuries that held her back the last couple of years.

She suffered a wrist injury in 2021 and was then hit a few weeks ago by a shoulder problem that forced her out of the Asian Games trials.

Asmitha, who is yet to win on the Hero WPGT, had a good day with six birdies and one bogey. Vidhatri had four birdies against three bogeys in her 71.

Jahanvi opened with a birdie and then had a good run of three more birdies around the turn from ninth to 11^th, but she also dropped five shots along the way.

Neha Tripathi (71) was fifth while Durga Nittur (70) shared sixth place with amateur Heena Kang (72).

Seher Atwal (71) with her first under-par round of the week was eighth while Ridhima Dilawari (75) ended ninth.

Khushi Khanijau (73) and Siddhi Kapoor (78) were tied for 10^th place.

The eighth leg of the Hero WPGT will be held at Bangalore’s Karnataka Golf Association course from June 14 to 17.

Also read: Pranavi leads chasing pack by eight in Golfshire leg of Hero WPGT