By Rahul Banerji
Overnight leader Sneha Singh stands 18 holes away from her second title of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2024 season with a five-shot lead over the field in Visakhapatnam.
On Thursday at the East Point Golf Club, Sneha extended her lead to five shots over closest rival Hitaashee Bakshi with a 3 under 69 that included a hat-trick of birdies on the back nine to recover from two dropped shots.
Sneha (70-69) is now 5-under 139 while Hitaashee carded her second successive par round to sit on a 144 total. Hyderabad’s Sneha is the only one with sub-par rounds on both days, the WGAI said.
The day’s star was amateur Zara Anand (74-72), who climbed to third alongside Khushi Khanijau (72-74) with three birdies in last four holes to total 2-over 146.
Sneha, who started the day two ahead of Hitaashee, extended her lead early in the round with two birdies inside the first three holes.
Quick comeback
A bogey on hole four was negated by a birdie on nine.
On the back nine, Sneha seemed to have given away some ground with back-to-back bogeys to start off.
The former national champion fought back immediately with a birdie on 12 and then had three in a row from holes 14 to 16.
Despite closing with a bogey Sneha was three-under for the day and once again it was the only under par round of the day. Hitaashee had three birdies against three bogeys.
Zara birdied early in her round but gave away a double bogey soon thereafter to turn in 1-over.
On the back nine she bogeyed again but rallied superbly with three birdies on the last three holes despite a bogey in between to close with a level par 72.
Khushi had three birdies against three bogeys.
Jasmine Shekar (74-75) and Ridhima Dilawari (73-77) were fifth and sixth, while Disha Kavery (77-76), Yaalisai Verma (76-77), Rhea Jha (76-77) and Seher Atwal (76-77) shared seventh place on 153.
The top 20 and ties made the cut (159) at the Rs.10 lakh event.
Scores and round 3 tee times
Tee 1
8 am: Rhea Jha 153; Yaalisai Verma 153; Disha Kavery 153
8:10 am: Ridhima Dilawari 150; Jasmine Shekar 149; Khushi Khanijau 146
8:20 am: Zara Anand (A) 146; Hitaashee Bakshi 144; Sneha Singh 139
Tee 10
8:05 am: Seher Atwal 153; Gauri Karhade 155
8:15 am: Kriti Chowhan 155; Snigdha Goswami 155; Shweta Mansingh 156
8:25 am: Trimann Saluja 156; Rhea Purvi S. 157; Ananya Datar 158
8:35 am: Ananya Garg 158; Yashita Raghav 159; Sinjini Mukherjee (A) 159
Also read: Sneha Singh leads Vizag Hero WPGT event after round one
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