Sneha Singh seeks a repeat show of Noida form at DLF

By Rahul Banerji

Sneha Singh will seek to become the first amateur back-to-back winner in 2020 heading into the eighth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf and Country Club from Wednesday.

Sneha will have to contend with the return of Tvesa Malik, who had a fine season in Europe, and makes only her second start of 2020 in the WPGT.

The Rs 10 lakh 54-hole event, the second after the re-start of the Tour, will feature as many as 30 players, the highest this year, including six amateurs.

Last week, Sneha stunned her senior colleagues with a confident start-to-finish victory at the Noida Golf Course, her second in a professional event.

Giving her company from the amateur ranks will be Hunar Mittal, who signalled her arrival with a tied second finish alongside the seasoned Amandeep Drall.

Amandeep took the winner’s cheque at the as the top pro at NGC.

This week the field will have three from India who played on the Ladies European Tour during the summer.

Good run

Tvesa had a superb season in Europe, though she skipped the season-ending Tour Championship.

She finished 56^th in the Order of Merit, and in 10 starts made eight cuts including a T4 at the Flumserberg Ladies Open and a T10 at the Ladies Open de France.

Diksha Dagar, one of only two Indians to have won on the LET, also played 10 events in the European stint, which included a team challenge.

She made the cut in four individual events in what was a modest season for her. Last week she finished out of the top 10 at NGC, a rare occurrence for Diksha on the domestic Tour.

This week she is out to make amends.

Astha Madan, another player who made three starts on the LET this season and had a best of T52 in Dubai, will be alongside Lakhmehar Pardesi and Geetika Ahuja.

Fore-runner

Interestingly, there is one more player in the field who won back-to-back events in 2020, but that was before Covid intervened and halted the Tour.

Pranavi Urs won the second leg as an amateur and then turned pro and immediately won her first professional start at the third leg.

Sneha will tee off in the company of Siddhi Kapoor and Ridhima Dilawari, another player searching to find form after a long break.

Hero WPGT Order of Merit leader Vani Kapoor, Rhea Jha and Afshan Fatima will play together, while Diksha is grouped with Jahanvi Bakshi and Jyotsana Singh.

The DLF event will also see the professional debuts of the Bakshi sisters, Hitashee and Jahnavi.

Round 1 groups, tee times

8:30 am: Amandeep Drall; Pranavi Urs; Nayanika Sanga (A)

8:40 am: Jahanvi Bakshi; Diksha Dagar; Jyotsana Singh

8:50 am: Lakhmehar Pardesi; Astha Madan; Geetika Ahuja

9 am: Trimann Saluja; Saaniya Sharma; Gursimar Badwal

9:10 am: Anousha Tripathi; Hitaashee Bakshi; Avani Prashanth (A)

9:20 am: Tvesa Malik; Riya Yadav (A); Seher Atwal

9:30 am: Afshan Fatima; Rhea Jha; Vani Kapoor

9:40 am: Sneha Singh (A); Siddhi Kapoor; Ridhima Dilawari

9:50 am: Smriti Mehra; Vidhatri Urs (A); Neha Tripathi

10:00 am: Kriti Chowhan (A); Anisha Agarwalla; Shagun Narain

Also read: Sneha makes NGC trip memorable with second pro tour title