By Rahul Banerji
A closing birdie handed Seher Atwal the sole lead in the eighth leg of the Hero WPGT at Clover Greens in Hosur on Thursday.
Seher, who trailed overnight leader Gaurika Bishnoi (68-70) by a shot now leads by one with rounds of 69-68 and a total of 137.
Rookie Kriti Chowhan showed that she is settling into pro golf with a fine 5 under 67, the day’s best card, to climb into third place from tied seventh.
Hitaashee Bakshi had a consistent 2 under 70 after a first round 71 to be tied fourth on 141 alongside amateur Keerthana Rajiv (71-70). Another amateur, Saanvi Somu (71-71), was sixth.
The top six are all under par after 36 holes and just two shots separate the top three with three others within five of the leader to promise a tight finish.
Amateurs to the fore
Amateurs continued to do well as Anvitha Narender (74-71) was seventh and Ayushi Dutta (73-73) was tied eighth alongside Rishika Muralidhar (74-72) and Jasmine Shekar (72-74).
Seher got off to a blazing start with two quick birdies and added further gains on the fourth and seventh holes to be 4 under 32 for the front nine.
She then had a string of pars till 16 before dropping her first shot of the day but made up with a birdie on 18 for a card of 68.
Gaurika had a run of three birdies from nine to 11 and added two more but three dropped shots gave her a day’s total of 2 under 70.
Kriti Chowhan’s 67 was most impressive with four birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine. She gave away shots on four and 18.
Among other big names in the field, Sneha Singh (73-74), twice a winner this season, was tied 11th and Tvesa Malik (76-72) was tied for 13th.
In the final round, both Seher and Gaurika will be seeking their second win of the season, while Kriti seeks the first of her professional career.
Seher won the opening leg of the year and Gaurika triumphed in the sixth.
The cut fell at 9 over 153 and 25 players made the final round.
Scores and round two tee times
8 am: Geetika Ahuja 153, Agrima Manral 152
8:10 am: Gauri Karhade 152, Anisha Agarwalla 151
8:20 am: Durga Nittur 151, Khushi Khanijau 151, Ravjot K Dosanjh 151
8:30 am: Snigdha Goswami 150, Rhea Purvi Saravanan 150, Neha Tripathi 149
8:40 am: Shweta Mansingh 149, Ananya Datar 148, Tvesa Malik 148
8:55 am: Sneha Singh 147, Rhea Jha 147, Jasmine Shekar 146
9:05 am: Ayushi Dutta (A) 146, Rishika Muralidhar 146, Anvitha Narender (A) 145
9:15 am: Saanvi Somu (A) 142, Keerthana Rajeev (A) 141, Hitaashee Bakshi 141
9:25 am: Kriti Chowhan 139, Gaurika Bishnoi 138, Seher Atwal 137
Also read: Gaurika Bishnoi takes early lead at Hosur leg of Hero WPGT
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