By Rahul Banerji
Vidhatri Urs emerged winner of the trials to pick the India team to the Queen Sirikit Cup amateur women’s championship at the Noida Golf Course on Saturday.
With the best five scores out of the six rounds counted towards the final tally, the Mysore girl brought home a 3-over par 75 at the par-72 NGC to finish atop the field of six with a best five aggregate of 387.
Overnight leader Asmitha Satish of Bangalore saw her position slip away with a final round of 84 that pegged her total behind Vidhatri’s, 390 to 387.
Right through the six days of competition, the field had to overcome the conditions, some intense cold spells and a string wind that blew almost non-stop.
Top picks
Vidhatri and Asmitha thus become the two automatic picks for the 42nd edition of the Queen Sirikit Cup. A third selection will be made at the discretion of the Indian Golf Union.
The tournament this year will be held at the Pondok Indah Golf Course, venue for the most recent Asian Games, in Jakarta, Indonesia, from March 10 to 13. It is officially known as the officially known as the Amateur Ladies Asia-Pacific Invitational Golf Team Championship.
Finishing behind the top two was Chandigarh’s Hunar Mittal, winner of the recent Nick Faldo Asia Series India leg at the Jaypee Greens a couple of weeks earlier.
Hunar had a final round of 75 to aggregate 391 (best five rounds), one shot better than Hyderabad’s Sneha Singh, the women’s national champion.
Sneha was undone by her first two rounds (84, 86) at the NGC and a closing 78 was not good enough to keep her Chandigarh rival at bay. Finishing behind them were Rishika Muralidhar (393) and Chitrangada Singh (395)
Scores (round in bold dropped to make best 5 of 6)
Vidhatri Urs 77 79 79 77 84 75 84 387
Asmitha Satish 78 78 74 77 83 84 84 390
Hunar Mittal 71 80 86 84 80 76 86 391
Sneha Singh 81 74 75 84 86 78 86 392
Rishika Muralidhar 83 75 76 87 81 78 87 393
Chitrangada Singh 86 74 79 82 80 80 86 395
Sharmila lead Indian at LET Q School
Coming off an extended injury break, Sharmila Nicollet finished in 52nd place after the fifth and final round of the Ladies European Tour’s Final Qualifying School on the North and South Courses of the La Manga Club in Spain on Sunday.
The Bangalore golfer and Gurgaon’s Vani Kapoor were the two Indians to make the four-day cut and play for final placings – and playing rights – on the expanded and more lucrative 2020 LET season.
While Sharmila had a five-day aggregate of 372 alongside six others, her eventual placing was determined on count-back as was the case with Vani, the 63rd place finisher following her final round at La Manga’s South Course.
Tough day out
Sharmila had an 11-over par 372 aggregate following her Sunday card of 77 on the South Course that had two birdies against four bogeys and a double, while Vani had a T61 on 13-over 377 against her name.
According to the LET website, of the 120 players competing, the top five are eligible for LET Membership in the top category.
Those from the sixth to 20th places are eligible for membership in Category 8a. Players who made the 72-hole cut to the leading 60 and ties and finished in position 21st and below, will be ranked according to score and be eligible for membership in Category 9b.
Players that fail to make the cut after 72 holes, will be eligible for LET membership in a lower category still and ranked in final score order.
Also read: Did you know these few interesting facts about golf?
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