Zara Anand leads field into final round of BGC leg of Hero WPGT

Noida amateur Zara Anand will take a two-shot lead into Friday’s final round of the Hero WPGT event at Bangalore Golf Club. Image courtesy WGAI.

By Rahul Banerji

Zara Anand held a two-shot lead over the field in the eighth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at Bangalore Golf Club on Thursday. 

The 17-year-old Noida amateur put herself in position to bid for a first win on the professional tour after several runner-up finishes, the WGAI said.

Zara added a 2 under par 66 to her opening 64 and at 6 under 130 she was two shots ahead of first round co-leader Lavanya Jadon, who scored a level par 68 to go with Wednesday’s 64 to total 4 under 132.

A shot further behind was yet another young star, Smriti  Bhargav (65-68), who is tied for third with the 24-year-old Durga Nittur (65-68).

Zara parred the first three holes, birdied the next three and rolled in another three pars before the turn. Her lone bogey came on the back nine on hole 12 before she parred the rest.

Headed to the US to join the collegiate golf circuit, Zara has had three second place finishes in the last two seasons one of which came at the same venue in 2025. 

She was finished runner-up at the 13^th leg in 2025 and at Kalhaar behind Ridhima Dilawari this year in Ahmedabad.

On the hunt

Lavanya is looking for a second tour win after victory at the DLF Golf and Country Club last year when she pipped Zara in a play-off.

Lavanya opened with a bogey, which she made up for on the very next hole. However, she dropped a shot again to turn in 1-over. 

Two birdies on the back nine were followed by five pars and a closing bogey for a day’s card of 68.

Smriti Bhargava had four birdies and four bogeys in her round, while Durga Nittur returned with three birdies and three dropped shots on her card. Smriti may well have been a co-leader but finished bogey-bogey.

Vidhatri Urs (69-65) and Anvvi Dahhiya (66-68) were tied for fifth at 2 under 134, while Jasmine Shekar (68-67) and Mannat Brar (67-68) shared seventh place.

Amandeep Drall (72-64) had the day’s best round and jumped to tied ninth place alongside Ridhima (69-67) at level par 136.

The cut fell at 7-over 143 and 35 players made the final round.

Scores and round 3 tee times

Tee 1

6:30 am: Karishma Govind 139, Shweta Mansingh 139, Mahreen Bhatia (A) 138

6:40 am: Nayanika Sanga 138, Tvesa Malik 138, Keerthana Rajeev (A) 138

6:50 am: Alysha Dutt (A) 138, Ananya Garg 137, Ridhima Dilawari 136

7 am: Amandeep Drall 136, Mannat Brar 135, Jasmine Shekar 135

7:10: am: Anvvi Dahhiya 134, Vidhatri Urs 134, Durga Nittur 133

7:20 am: Smriti Bhargav 133, Lavanya Jadon 132, Zara Anand (A) 130

Tee 10

6:30 am: Anisha Agarwalla 140, Riya Jadon 140

6:40 am: Snigdha Goswami 140, Jahnavi Prakhya 140, Yaalisai Verma 140

6:50 am: Shagun Narain 140, Kashika Misra 140, Ayushi Dutta 140

7 am: Ceerat Kang (A) 141, Heena Kang 141, Rhea Jha 142

7:10 am: Ananthi Vivek (A) 142, Agrima Manral 142, Neha Tripathi 142

7:20 am: Oviya Reddi 143, Ananya Datar 143, Ananyaa Sood (A) 143

Also read: Zara Anand, Lavanya Jadon share early lead at the BGC