Kolkata: Amateur Tvesa Malik and professionals Neha Tripathi and Shweta Galande finished with identical scores of 153 after the second round to share the lead in the third leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Thursday. One shot adrift, in joint fourth position are Saaniya Sharma and Sharmila Nicollet. The INR 6,00,000 event featuring 17 players will culminate on 5th February.

Amateur Tvesa Malik carded 1 over 73 to jump into the lead after starting the day at tied eighth position. She carded two birdies on the 2nd and 6th holes with an equal number of bogeys on the 3rd and 5th in her front-nine. She dropped two more shots on the 14th and 16th holes, but a birdie on the 18th helped her register the best score of the day along with Saaniya Sharma.

Local girl Neha Tripathi played an indifferent front nine, carding two bogeys on the 1st and 8th holes along with a double on the 6th. She also carded a birdie on the 4th hole. The back-nine was a much better effort with one bogey and birdie apiece on the 11th and 15th holes respectively, to finish the round with a score of 3 over 75. Shweta Galande’s card of 4 over 76 included five bogeys on the 3rd, 5th, 12th, 15th and 18th holes. She carded the lone birdie of her round on the 13th hole to finish with a score of 4 over 76.

Hero Motocorp sponsored Bengaluru golfer Sharmila Nicollet and Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma finished with identical totals of 154 after 36 holes to share the fourth position. Saaniya carded two birdies on the 3rd and 4thholes with an equal number of bogeys on the 6th and 7th in her front nine. She carded two more bogeys on the 12th and 16th holes, but a birdie on the 15th was enough to put her into joint fourth position. Sharmila’s error prone round of 6 over 78 included five bogeys on the 3rd, 5th, 9th, 12th and 18th holes. She also carded a double bogey on the 7th hole with just a lone birdie on the 11th.

Kolkata’s Smriti Mehra and the Delhi duo of Ankita Tiwana and Mehar Atwal are in tied sixth position at 158 after the second round, followed by Jaipur’s Afshan Fatima in ninth place with a total score of 159.