Shreya keeps amateur flag flying at Boulder Hills

By Rahul Banerji

Shreya Pal held on to her overnight leader’s place by a slender one-shot margin on day two of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour event at the Boulder Hills Golf & Country Club in Hyderabad on Thursday.

With a day to go in the Rs 7 lakh 12^th leg of the Tour, the professionals were closing in on the 16-year-old amateur with Order of Merit leader Gaurika Bishnoi hard on her heels.

Shreya, who led by two shots after the 17^th hole, bogeyed the last hole, a 525-yard par-5 but still finished with a level-par card of 72. She had three bordies in all against as many bogeys and is now 5-under 139 thanks to her 67 on Wednesday.

Making ground

Gaurika started the day five strokes behind Shreya and closed in quickly with four birdies in her first nine holes. She turned in 4-under at which time she was two adrift of Shreya, who had picked up one shot as well.

Gaurika, who turned 21 last week then added a fifth birdie to go 5-under to trim the lead to just one shot. Playing one group ahead of the leader, Gaurika however, dropped a shot on the 11th, but so did Shreya.

On the 12th, Shreya had another bogey, which meant the two were now level and tied for the lead.

However, Shreya showed nerves of steel to pick up two shots in the next three holes and go two up again before dropping a final shot on the 18th.

Seven in a row

Meanwhile Gaurika, who had a couple of birdie chances, parred seven holes in a row to close out her round for a 4-under 68. She and Shreya will play the final day in the same group alongside Gauri Karhade, who is the only player in the field to go sub-par on both days.

Gauri (141), looking for her first title on the pro Tour, shot 71 on day one and followed up with a 70 that started with birdies on the first two holes. She had another birdie on 12th while her lone bogey came on the back nine.

Ananya Datar (70, 74) was fourth, while Afshan Fatima (74, 71) was fifth and Amandeep Drall (74, 72) sixth.

Though last week’s winner Sneha Singh is well behind, it is still a measure of how well she and fellow amateur Shreya have handled the 6,000-yard distance the course is playing for the tournament.

With the top three all under par, it holds the promise of being an interesting final round on Friday.

Tee times for final round

8:30 am: Oviya Reddi 165, Anisha Agarwalla 164, Suchitra Ramesh 164

8:40 am: Anousha Tripathi 160, Jyotsana Singh 160, Ridhima Dilawari 156

8:50 am: Khushi Khanijau 155, Ishvari Prasanna 152, Gurjot Badwal 152

9 am: Sneha Singh (A) 151, Gursimar Badwal 151, Siddhi Kapoor 147

9:10 am: Amandeep Drall 146, Afshan Fatima 145, Ananya Datar 144

9:20 am: Gauri Karhade 141, Gaurika Bishnoi 140, Shreya Pal (A) 139

Also read: Hyderabad amateur beats quality field for Hero Women’s Pro Tour title