MacLaren, Hillier lead the way; Pranavi Urs four behind at HWIO 2019

By Rahul Banerji

Meghan MacLaren of England and Australia’s Whitney Hillier led the field on 5-under par 67 after the first day of the Hero Women’s Indian Open even as teenager Pranavi Urs sank two back to back birdies for the best Indian card on the day.

Lucknow rookie Jyotsana Singh, in only her 12^th professional start, nailed the day’s only hole in one, on the par-3 16^th, using a 7-iron on the 150-yard hole that she sank for her second ace ever. “The club slipped and the ball still went in, si I think I’ll try it again tomorrow,” the smiling 19-year-old said.

Mysore-born Pranavi picked up shots on her final two holes for a 1-under par card of 71 to be the best-placed Indian on the day, four shots behind the two leaders.

On 4-under 68s were Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord and Liz Young of England in tied third place while Swede Linda Wessberg (69) was fifth.

Four players, including Europe’s Solheim Cup-winning captain, Catriona Mathew, were tied-sixth on 2-under 70 and another eight shot 71s to be Tied-10^th including Pranavi.

Day to forget

For defending champion Becky Morgan and 2017 winner Camille Chevalier, it was a day to forget. While the Frenchwoman was 3-over 75 and tied 58^th, Morgan was three shots further behind on6-over 78 and tied 80th.

MacLaren said later, “It was a bit of a mixture. I made a lot of birdies and was really, really positive,. Thought I left some birdies out there, Did a couple of really stupid things but I can’t really complain

“It wasn’t very nice to get up a 4 am but for the first hour you have an empty course in front of you and really pure greens so that was nice though it got bad later, really burning hot, It just kept getting stickier and stickier out there.”

Added Hillier, “I had six birdies and a bogey on the first hole that I got back very quickly, which I was very happy with. Thought I hit it really well out there, hit it close all day and gave myself lots of birdies chances, which is good.”

Super finish

A superbly-weighted approach on her last hole gave 16-year-old Pranavi bragging rights amongst the 22-strong domestic contingent.

Diksha Dagar and domestic tour regulars Amandeep Drall and Tvesa Malik were a shot behind in tied 17^th place with scores of level par 72.

Pranavi played a steady out-bound nine to make the turn on level par 36. Though she dropped a shot early, back to back birdies in the final two holes made sure she would be the only Indian to go under par on the opening day.

Amandeep mixed three birdies against three bogeys, finishing off with an excellent birdie on the ninth hole, her last of the day with the pin awkwardly placed on a shelf right at the back of the green.

Diksha had an even more adventurous day in the course of which she hit five birdies but squandered those gains with three bogeys and a double, while Tvesa had a more sedate round, her two birdies cancelling out two dropped shots. In each case, the final score for the day could have been a better one.

Also on 1-over par 73 and tied 28^th place were Neha Tripathi, Gaurika Bishnoi, Astha Madan and Jyotsana Singh while in shared 42nd place were amateurs Seher Atwal and Jahnavi Bakshi, and Vani Kapoor, for whom the DLF GCC is a home course on 2-over par 74s.

Also read: Tvesa, Diksha gear up for first green Hero Women’s Indian Open