Vani Kapoor takes three-stroke lead

Local favourite Vani Kapoor carded a level-par 72 to grab the opening day lead in the 17th leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour at the Noida Golf Course near the capital on Wednesday.

Trailing Vani by three strokes was Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal who managed a three-over 75 in the `5,00,000 event. Vani started the pursuit of her fifth title of the season cautiously, playing a bogey-free front nine. The Hero Order of Merit leader however, grew in confidence and hit her first birdie on the 10th hole. She dropped a shot on the 13th, but followed it up with a birdie on the 15th.

She could have ended the day with an under-par score had she not dopped a shot on the 16th hole. Gursimar started with an error-prone front nine, dropping three shots along with a double bogey.

Her only birdie in the front nine came on the 8th. In her back nine, she carded one more bogey but two consecutive birdies in the closing holes holes were enough to put her in the second place.

Her tally of three birdies was the maximum for the day, shared with amateur Tavleen Batra. Pune’s Shweta Galande, Delhi’s Gauri Monga and the Kolkata duo of Neha Tripathi and Smriti Mehra carded five over 77s for the tied third position.

Shweta’s round had a lone birdie on the eighth hole against four bogies, along with a double on the 15th. Gauri played a birdie-less round with five bogies, four in the front nine, while Neha played an unimpressive front nine with three double bogies (3rd, 4th and 7th) along with a bogey on the 6th.

She made a remarkable recovery in her bogey-free back nine, with birdies on the 14th and 18th holes. Smriti started off well carding two consecutive birdies.

However, she could not sustain the momentum and a flurry of bogies along with a double spoilt her scorecard.

Panchkula’s Amandeep Drall and Tavleen returned scores of six-over 78 to be tied seventh. Amandeep’s round had five bogies, one double and a lone birdie. Tavleen fired three birdies, along with four bogies, one double and also a triple bogey.

Local players Ankita Tiwana and Ayesha Kapur were placed ninth and 10th with scores of seven-over 79 and eight-over 80.