Ridhima Dilawari stretches Zion Hills advantage to two strokes

Overnight leader Ridhima Dilawari had to overcome the setback of a late double-bogey to retain her spot at the head of the field on day two of the Hero WPGT event at Zion Hills near Bangalore on Thursday. Image courtesy WGAI.

By Rahul Banerji

Overnight leader Ridhima Dilawari survived a late double bogey to extend her overnight advantage to two shots after 36 holes at the Zion Hills Golf County at Kolar near Bangalore on Thursday.

A three-time winner this season, Ridhima had five birdies against two bogeys and the double before a gain on the closing hole helped her return a 1 under 71 after an opening 68, the WGAI said.

At 5 under 139, Ridhima was two shots clear of Amandeep Drall (69-72) and Vidhatri Urs (69-72) at the 10th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour.

Last week’s winner at Clover Greens, Vani Kapoor dropped four bogeys including back-to-back lapses before the turn to card a 1 over 73 and drop to fourth place.

Young Saanvi Somu, armed with the experience of playing on the Ladies Access Tour in Europe, started strongly with four birdies in the first six holes. 

However, she let the momentum slip away and there were no more birdies but two double bogeys and pars on the rest for a level par 144 total with cards of 71 and 73.

Up and down

Hero Order of Merit leader Ridhima had two early birdies but gave back a shot before the turn.

Another early bogey on the back nine pulled her down to even par but three birdies and the double saw her stay ahead of the pack.

Young stars Kashika Misra (72-73), Mannat Brar (73-74) and Riya Jadon (73-75) were sixth, seventh and eighth respectively while Ananya Datar (72-77), Jasmine Shekar (74-75), Anvvi Dahiya (76-73), Karishma Govind (76-73) and Anvitha Narender (78-71) were T9 at 5 over 149.

Local star Ananti Vivek (74-76), who trains at Zion Hills, was the top amateur alongside Heena Kang (76-74) and Shreshta Shukla (78-72) on 6 over 150.

The cut fell at 155 with 34 players advancing to the third and final round. Prominent names missing the cut included Seher Atwal, Shweta Mansingh and Durga Nittur.

Scores and round 3 tee times

7:30 am: Alysha Dutt (A) 155, Eti Chaudhary 155

7:38 am: Ceerat Kang (A) 155, Tvesa Malik 155

7:46 am: Neha Tripathi 155, Khushi Khanijau 154

7:54 am: Snigdha Goswami 154, Jahnavi Prakhya 154

8:02 am: Priya Kumari (A) 154, Keerthana Rajeev (A) 154

8:10 am: Ananyaa Sood (A) 154, Sneha Singh 152

8:22 am: Gourabi Bhowmick 152, Yaalisai Verma 152

8:30 am: Lavanya Jadon 152, Prakruthi Sastry 152

8:38 am: Ketaki Sood 151, Shagun Narain 151

8:46 am: Shrestha Shukla 150, Heena Kang 150

8:54 am: Ananthi Vivek (A) 150, Anvitha Narender 149

9:02 am: Karishma Govind 149, Anvvi Dahhiya 149

9:14 am: Jasmine Shekar 149, Ananya Datar 149

9:22 am: Riya Jadon 148, Mannat Brar 147

9:30 am: Kashika Misra 145, Saanvi Somu 144

9:38 am: Vani Kapoor 142, Vidhatri Urs 141

9:46 am: Amandeep Drall 141, Ridhima Dilawari 139

Also read: Bogey-free Ridhima Dilawari sets round one pace at Zion Hills