Smriti opens up four shot lead

Smriti Mehra opened up a four shot lead over Neha Tripathi at the end of the first round in the fifth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2013 at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Wednesday. Smriti, who has already won two titles this season, continued her good run to open a sizeable lead over Neha to end Day One at one under 71. Neha, the winner of the first leg, didn’t have a particularly good day on the greens but still managed to be second on the leaderboard with a first round score of three-over 75. Smriti was in supreme touch on the day and carded birdies on the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 13th and 16th holes to command a healthy lead after the day’s round. She had bogeys on the eighth, 11th, 12th and 18th holes. On a day when most of the golfers struggled, Neha played steadily and made fewer mistakes as compared to others to finish the day at the second spot. Although she has had just a single birdie on the 14th hole, she was able to stay in the with not many bogeys in the round. Her bogeys came on the 6th, 7th, 8th and 15th holes and she finished the day one shot clear of local girl Saaniya Sharma. Saaniya with two birdies, on the eleventh and twelvth was at the third spot with a score of four over 76. Gursimar Badwal (A) with five over 77 finished fourth and was followed by Preetinder Kaur and Vani Kapoor, who are tied at fifth with identical scores of six over 78.