By Rahul Banerji
Tvesa Malik produced three rounds of solid golf to win the SuperSport Ladies Challenge presented by Sun International on Friday by three shots from South Africa’s Gabrielle Venter.
The event at Sun City, two hours from Johannesburg, is the first of seven on the Sunshine Ladies Tour that is played around South Africa. The win will allow Tvesa to play in the remaining six events.
The tour includes two tournaments co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour – the Joburg Ladies Open and the Investec South African Women’s Open – later in the year.
Diksha Dagar is the only Indian winner in South Africa before Tvesa. At the 2019 South African Women’s Open.
Overnight joint leader with US-based South African Paula Reto, Tvesa mixed three birdies with two dropped shots for her closing 1 under par 71 to follow rounds of 71 and 65 for a 9 under 207 total.
The only Indian in the field this year, Tvesa produced a bogey-free second round of 7 under 65 on Thursday that saw her pick up four strokes on the back nine and a further three after the turn.
It put the newly-married Tvesa into the joint lead and on a rough final day that saw a handful break into the 60s her 71 was good enough for the top spot and a haul of 475.50 points on the Investec Order of Merit.
Tvesa said, “I worked hard and was focussed on getting back to the Tours that I have been on.
“The Sunshine Ladies Tour is a place I have enjoyed and South Africa has some great golf courses. The last three days have been superb, particularly the second round, when I could do nothing wrong.”
She added, “I will hopefully carry on this form and this gives me greater room to plan my calendar and I will get into more events, some also on LET.”
Tvesa has also entered the second event, the Sunshine Ladies Invitational from March 6 to 8.
The promising Vetner, who was sole second earned 345 OoM points, while for Tvesa it was a third good outing in South Africa where she finished seventh at the Jabra Ladies Classic and ninth at the Joburg Ladies Open, both in 2019.
Mixed fortunes
New hubby Ajeetesh Sandhu, whom Tvesa married on December 29 last year however, missed the cut at the ongoing $2 million International Series Oman at Al Mouj Golf.
Also unable to make the weekend in Oman were Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia, Shiv Kapur, Veer Ahlawat, Anirban Lahiri and Yuvraj Singh Sandhu.
Going through into the money rounds behind 36-hole leader Mito Pereira of Chile were Karandeep Kochhar (72-69), Chikkarangappa S. (71-70), Rashid Khan (72-70), Honey Baisoya (71-68), Jeev Milkha Singh (75-68) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (73-71) with the cut falling at level par 144.
Pereira (67-66, 11 under) topped a LIV Golf-heavy leaderboard with fellow Matthew Wolff (71-63) in second a stroke behind, while Peter Uihlein was shared third on 9 under par 135 alongside Australia’s Kevin Yuan.
Eugenio Chacarra, Charl Schwartzel, and Matt Jones were the other LIV golfers to miss the cut alongside Lahiri while a host of others went through safely.
Also read: Sneha holds off Hitaashee in Vizag for second 2024 WPGT title
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