Tvesa Malik brings in third straight top-10 finish in South Africa

By Rahul Banerji

Tvesa Malik continued her productive run in South Africa with her third consecutive top 10 result, this time a shared ninth place at the Standard Bank Ladies Open in Cape Town on Friday.

After four events on the Sunshine Ladies Tour Tvesa is fifth on the Order of Merit, her results including a win in the season-opening SuperSport Ladies Challenge, tied ninth at the Joburg Ladies Open and a T7 at the Jabra Ladies Classic.

With rounds of 73-71-76 in the event, the lone Indian in the field was alongside two others in ninth place, seven strokes behind the winner, Gabrielle Venter of South Africa.

Gabrielle, second behind Scotland’s Kylie Henry on the order of merit, shot a 4-under 70 on a none-too-easy final day to win with a 9-under 220 aggregate.

Her efforts pushed overnight leader Kylie Henry (74) and France’s Emie Peronnin (70) into shared second spot.

Mixed bag

Tvesa, who logged red figures on the first two days at the par-74 Royal Cape course for tied fourth place overnight, had one birdie against three bogeys in her 2-over 76 on Friday to finish alongside Kiera Floyd of South Africa and Germany’s Carolin Kaufmann.

A multiple winner and Order of Merit topper on her home Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, Tvesa parred the first six holes and then dropped two shots before the turn A birdie soon after was some compensation but she gave that away near the finish line.

Verena Gimmy of Germany and Spain’s Harang Lee were tied for fourth, while Florentyna Parker was fifth. Arian Klotz and Vanessa Knecht were tied for seventh place.

The Tour will now take a break and resume with the ABSA Ladies Invitational in the first week of April. Tvesa will be joined by Ridhima Dilawari, Neha Tripathi, Seher Atwal and Asmitha Sathish.

Also read: Tvesa Malik wins SuperSport Ladies Challenge in Sun City