Srinagar: Delhi amateur Mehar Atwal seems to be enjoying her outing at the Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar, finishing day one at the top of the leaderboard. On a difficult day, with strong winds blowing on the course, Mehar held on to her nerves to card the days only under par score of 2 under 70. Trailing the Delhi amateur by a couple of shots is Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi. Delhi girls Ankita Tiwana and in form Vani Kapoor along with Pune’s Shweta Galande finished with identical scores of 1 over 73 to be placed tied third after 18 holes.
Delhi Amateur Mehar Atwal played a near perfect round today under difficult conditions, as she sank three birdies on her front nine on the 5th, 8th and 9th holes, faltering with just one bogey on the 6th hole. Her return journey, though a little rocky, was still steady enough for her to finish at the top with three birdies on the 11th, 12th and 16th holes, and an equal number of bogeys on the 13th, 14th and 17th holes.
Neha Tripathi from Kolkata played an extremely calculated round to finish second after 18 holes, trailing Mehar by two shots. Her even par round of 72 consisted of two birdies on the 5th and 17th holes, and two bogeys on the 8th and 13th holes.
Current Hero Order of Merit Leader and winner of leg 6, Vani Kapoor struggled today as she finished tied third with Ankita Tiwana and Shweta Galande, carding identical scores of 1 over 73 in the first round. Vani started her campaign cautiously with a birdie on the first hole, and faltered just once in the front nine with a bogey on the 7th hole. Her back nine, however was troublesome as she went on to card a bogey on the 11th hole and a double bogey on the 15th hole. She ended the day with two consecutive life saving birdies on the 16th and 17th holes, which helped her finish tied third in the first round.
Delhi golfer Ankita Tiwana had a bad start as she began her campaign with two consecutive bogeys on the first two holes. Thereafter she raised her game to card three birdies on the 4th, 7th and 9th holes, followed by two more bogeys on the 8th and 18th holes. Pune golfer Shweta Galande who is tied for the third place along with Vani and Ankita carded three birdies on the 5th, 10th and the 17th holes, but also carded four bogeys on the 1st, 4th 11th and 12th holes.
Chandigarh amateur Tavleen Batra and Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal are tied 6th with identical scores of 2 over 74 after 18 holes. Tavleen carded four birdies on the 6th, 8th, 11th and 13th holes along with four bogeys on 1st, 12th, 14th and 18th holes. She also had a double bogey on the 10th hole. Gursimar carded two birdies on the 2nd and 13th holes and 2 bogeys on the on 3rd and 5th holes along with a double bogey on the 9th hole.
Veteran golfer Smriti Mehra who is defending the title here at Srinagar had an indifferent day at the course. She finished her round with an unimpressive 4 over 76 that included two double bogeys on the 5th and 12th holes, and three bogeys on the 4th, 14th and 18th holes. She also carded three birdies on the 6th, 10th and 15th holes. She finished the round at the eighth position.
Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma finished at the ninth place with a score of 5 over 77 after 18 holes, followed by Pallavi Jain who is placed 10th with a score of 6 over 78 at the end of the first round.
The INR 7,00,000 tournament is being played at the stunning and breath taking Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar from the 24th – 26th of June 2014. The Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour 2014 comprises a total of fifteen legs spanning across key locations in India.
