By Rahul Banerji
Hyderabad threw up a second surprise winner on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour in as many weeks with rookie Gauri Karhade beating the field to the finish line at the Boulder Hills Golf and Country Club on Friday.
On a day of packed golf action worldwide – Tiger Woods at 1-under six shots behind leader Justin Thomas in the BMW Championship at Medinah; Anirban Lahiri going well at 4-under in the Korn Ferry Tour finals while Shubhankar Sharma is not; nine Indians led by Rashid Khan have made the cut at the Sarawak Championsip in Malaysia and Gaganjeet Bhullar has not at the Czech Masters – it turned out to be a special occasion for Gauri as well.
Playing in only her sixth event as a pro, the 17-year-old pipped the seasoned field to win by one shot from Gaurika Bishnoi and Afshan Fatima.
Overnight leader, amateur Shreya Pal, slipped down the order to finish in a tie for fifth place.
Cool finish
But it was the unheralded Mumbai girl, who turns 18 in October and has not done better than sixth place in her short professional career, who took centre-stage on Friday with a cool and collected display to aggregate 2-under 214 and a final round of 1-over 73.
Gaurika Bishnoi (75) and Afshan Fatima (70) were a shot behind. The former was unable to find a single birdie on the day while Afshan made a great charge on the front nine with a 2-under 34 and even held the lead midway through the back nine.
Crucial dropped shots on two consecutive holes, however, derailed her run.
Ananya Datar (72) was fourth on level par 216.
Shreya was unable to emulate her Hyderabad colleague Sneha Singh as her challenge came undone on the final day. She had two birdies to open and close the round, but in between had four bogeys and two doubles for a card of 78 and fifth place alongside Amandeep Drall (71) at 1-over 217.
See-saw battle
Gauri, starting the final day two behind Shreya and one behind Gaurika, parred the first five holes but carded a double bogey on the next hole. Gaurika dropped a shot and Shreya made a double bogey to open the door again for Gauri.
Meanwhile, Afshan was making a charge with three birdies against one bogey on the front nine.
After nine holes, it was still very tight. Gaurika, 4-under after two rounds, was still 2-under after 45 holes while Shreya, Afshan, Gauri and Ananya Datar were at 1-under after the front nine.
On the back nine, Gauri and Afshan found early birdies and Gaurika bogeyed to let them into the lead with the two-shot swing. Gauri dropped a shot on 12th to fall back to leave Afshan the sole leader.
Both birdied the 14th hole at which stage Afshan was ahead at 3-under and Gauri was 2-under while Shreya, now 5-over for the day after a bogey on the 12th, fell back to even par.
Afshan then dropped shots on two consecutive holes to allow Gauri back into the lead. After that, the Mumbai girl only had to stay calm and get her pars which she did to her great credit despite the constant pressure. With no more birdies coming, it left Gauri the winner.
Emerging talent
According to the Women’s Golf Association of India, Gauri started playing at the age of 10 and learnt her early lessons in Thane and Kharghar. She then honed her skills at the Poona Golf Club andnow lives in Mumbai.
She turned pro in the middle of 2019 and before Friday, Gauri’s best result came last week at the Hyderabad Golf Club, where she finished sixth. In the 10th leg at Bangalore, she was tied 10th.
On the day, Siddhi Kapoor (74) was seventh and Sneha (74) eighth, Gursimar Badwal (75) ended ninth and Ishvari Prasanna (75) rounded off the top 10.
The consistent Gaurika stays on top of the Hero WPG Tour Order of Merit and became the first golfer this year to cross Rs.10 lakh in earnings.
She now has won Rs 10,49,700 and is followed by Amandeep Drall (Rs 8,63,533) and Neha Tripathi (Rs 8,36,183). Ridhima Dilawari at Rs 7,50,233 and Gursimar Badwal at Rs 7,41,733 are fourth and fifth on the Order of Merit after 12 events.
Up next is the 13th Leg at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon from August 28 to 30.
Also read: Another Hyderabad amateur shakes up pro ranks at Boulder Hills
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