Gaurika, Amandeep in four-way tie for lead at HWIO 2022

By Rahul Banerji

It was a day to celebrate for women’s golf in the country with two home-grown talents involved in a four-way tie for the lead at the $400,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open on Friday.

Gaurika Bishnoi and Amandeep Drall were among a handful bringing in sub-par cards on a brutal day for scores at the DLF Golf and Country Club and shared top spot on five-under 139 along with two others.

Gaurika played an electric second nine and Amandeep, 30, joined Finland’s Noora Komulainen (67-72) and  Caroline Hedwall (68-71) of Sweden in the lead.

Lying sole fifth was another Swede, Elin Arvidsson (68-72) on 4-under.

Gaurika, 25, has never missed the cut in four previous starts at the Hero Women’s Indian Open.

On a day, when players were unanimous in their opinion that pin positions were trickier than the first day, Gaurika brought home the best card of 4-under 68 and only a dozen players in all shot in red numbers.

Good day out

The Indian contingent had a fine day with 15 players, including three amateurs, making the cut to ensure weekend action.

A winner in 2016, Aditi Ashok stayed in the hunt despite missing a bunch of makeable putts.

The LPGA regular shot a bogey-free 71 to get to 3-under and was tied-sixth alongside England’s Meghan MacLaren (72-69), Spaniard Luna Sobron Galmes (69-72) and South African Nicole Garcia (69-72).

Aditi said later, “I missed a lot of putts, but the good part was that I played bogey-free, so the feelings are mixed.”

Gaurika started Day 2 on a none-too-happy note with bogeys on her first two holes.

She got back the shots with birdies on 13 and 16. On her way back, Gaurika, once again bogeyed the first.

Then, as she laughingly said later, home course advantage’ kicked in and the remaining eight holes saw her sink no less than five birdies. 

“I didn’t have the best of starts today. I was two over through two holes but I made a birdie on my fourth hole so the momentum came back,” she said.

On the back nine, she turned up the heat with five birdies and one bogey.

Birdie chances

“I definitely set up a lot more birdie opportunities today as compared to yesterday. I did hit some of them close, some were longish. So it was like a mix of birdies,” she added.

Amandeep’s bogey-free run ended early this morning as she dropped a shot on 11 after starting on the back nine.

Back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 ensured she turned in one-under. The second nine was a roller coaster with two birdies and three bogeys for an even-par 72.

“Today’s round was very similar to yesterday’s. Nothing good or bad.,” Amandeep would say later.

“It’s just like I missed it on two-three wrong places where I ended up dropping a shot because it’s really tough from there.

“And the course is such that if you miss it at the wrong spot, you end up dropping a shot. So that’s exactly what happened today.”

Noora Komulainen, 31, who has never won on the LET in her 10-year-old pro career, has played steady golf in India.

She has never missed the cut in six previous starts and her best has been T6 in 2018.

Good year

The Finn has done well at the Aramco series events, as she was on the team that finished first in Sotogrande, second in New York, and third in Bangkok, but individually her results have been modest.

She said, “This is one of my favourite events of the year and I’ve always played well here so I was really looking forward to this week.

“I’m really enjoying my time here in India. Over the next two days, I guess I will just have a mindset to hit it straight and try to make birdies.”

Hedwall, who has one win and two runner-up finishes at the HWIO (one runner-up finish on the Gary Player layout), said, “I think I was playing as well as I did yesterday, really.

“I just didn’t get off to a great start. I  three-putted on one and missed on the wrong side of the green on 3. But then I got going and made birdies on 7-8-9. 

“I made a long putt on no 7 and then two-putted on 8 for birdie and hit it close on nine. So it was nice to turn that to one-under.”

Three amateurs remain in the medal contest – Mysore’s Vidhatri Urs, US-based Anika Varma, and National Games champion Avani Prashanth of Bangalore.

Also read: Wessberg leads by a shot at HWIO as Drall heads home challenge