Ridhima Dilawari receives her winner’s cheque from well-known coach Vijay Divecha after the Kalhaar leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour event in Ahmedabad on Friday. Image courtesy WGAI.
By Rahul Banerji
Ridhima Dilawari needed to survive a mid-round bump before emerging winner of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour’s Ahmedabad leg by a single shot on Friday.
The Mumbai leg runner-up was hit by a quadruple bogey midway through the final round before edging out amateur Zara Anand at Kalhaar Blues & Greens, the WGAI said.
Ridhima, who held a four-shot lead over Zara, held on well to win her first title since last July at Zion Hills. Ridhima was 5 over par 77 for the day to total level par 216 for the tournament.
Zara (74) finished on 1 over 217 and 2025 Order of Merit winner Vani Kapoor (72) was sole third at 2 over 218.
At the start of the day, Ridhima looked well-set to win but the quadruple bogey on hole 10 put her under severe pressure.
She faced threats from at least five others, but none of the challengers could take advantage of the opportunity offered.
Top spot
The win carried Ridhima to the top of the Hero Order of Merit with Rs. 4 lakh, while second placed Jasmine Shekar, who won the first leg, is second on Rs.2.30 lakhs.
Jasmine, who had a difficult week, finished 18th and 16 shots behind the winner.
Ridhima opened with a bogey and then ran off eight straight pars before dropping the quad on the Par-4 10th.
At that stage, All India Ladies champion Lavanya Gupta (75-70-74) with a birdie on 2 and pars all the way to 10, was alongside Ridhima in the lead.
Lavanya would later drop back with three bogeys on the back nine as Ridhima held on with pars till the finish.
Zara, opened with nine straight pars but dropped a double on 10 and bogeyed 13.
Missing out
A birdie on 15 was not enough as she needed at least one more in the last four holes to force a playoff with Ridhima which never came.
Vani Kapoor (72), six behind Ridhima at the start, also had a chance despite bogeys on holes 1 and 6.
She managed birdies on two pars-3s and needed more on the back nine, but had none to finish two behind in sole third place.
Sneha Singh’s two early double bogeys ruined her chances and she finished with a 73 with a card that also contained four birdies and a bogey.
The Hyderabad girl tied for fourth with Lavanya, whose bogey-bogey finish took away any chance she may have had of upstaging Ridhima.
Also tied fourth was Jahanvi Bakshi, who had three birdies against six bogeys, two of which came on the closing holes.
Nayanika Sanga (75), Amandeep Drall (79) were seventh and eighth and Lavanya Jadon (73) finished ninth.
Amateur Mahreen Bhatia (75) tied for tenth place with Riya Jadon (73).
Also read: Ridhima holds a four-shot lead after day two at Kalhaar WPGT leg
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