Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour: Amandeep Drall takes lead on Day 1

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 13

Amandeep Drall lived up to her top billing with a flawless 4-under 68 that put her on top of the leader board at the end of the first round of the 10th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, at the Chandigarh Golf Club.

The Kapurthala golfer leads the combined Hero Order of Merit for 2020-21 despite missing out on the last few legs of the Tour because of being busy with events in Europe. After day one, she was one shot ahead of the highly rated amateur Avani Prashanth (69), who had four birdies against one bogey.

Both Amandeep and Avani had a bogey-free 3-under 33 each on the back nine at the Chandigarh Golf Club. They also had a birdie each on the front nine, but Avani also dropped a shot on the ninth, while Amandeep stayed error-free.

Avani was the winner of the third leg and runner-up in the seventh leg in 2021. Amandeep is yet to taste a win in 2021, though she had two in 2020. She was runner-up to Avani in the third leg, so she has a score to settle with the youngster. Seher Atwal and Jahanvi Bakshi also carded under par rounds of 1-under 71 each to be tied-third. Seher and Jahanvi had contrasting rounds producing similar scores. Seher had two birdies on front nine, while Jahanvi had two bogeys. However on the back nine, Seher had two birdies against three bogeys, while Jahanvi had three birdies and no bogeys.

Vani Kapoor, with three birdies between ninth and 13th against three bogeys, two of them in the last three holes, shot 72. Amateur Puneet K Bajwa, who landed the day’s only eagle, also had a 72. Gaurika Bishnoi started with a birdie on second but her form deserted her thereafter. She had four bogeys in a space of five holes between fifth and ninth and on the back nine she had two each of birdies and bogeys. Pranavi Urs, Rhea Saravanan and Hitaashee Bakshi were also Tied-seventh with Gaurika at 3-over 75.