Kolkata: Gursimar Badwal carded 3 over 75 in difficult conditions to grab the lead on day one of the third leg of the Hero Women’s professional Golf Tour at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club here on Wednesday. Trailing by a single stroke in second position is Sharmila Nicollet. The INR 6,00,000 event will culminate on 5th February.

Gursimar struggled with the conditions in the first half and carded two consecutive bogeys on the 2nd and 3rdholes, along with a double on the 5th. She carded her lone birdie of the day on the 4th hole. However, the professional from Kapurthala played with much more control in the latter half, and played a bogey-free back 9 to finish with a score of 3 over 75 and take the top position.

Hero Motocorp sponsored Sharmila Nicollet, who is playing in her first tournament this year, carded 4 over 76 to take the second spot. She too had a shaky start and dropped five shots on the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th holes, with a lone birdie on the 4th in her front nine. The Bengaluru girl made no further errors and a bogey-free back-nine was enough to secure her the second position.

Kolkata’s Smriti Mehra and Pune’s Shweta Galande are tied for the third position with identical totals of 5 over 77 after 18 holes. Smriti played a birdie-less front-nine with five bogeys on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th holes. She dropped three more shots in the latter half on the 15th, 16th and 17th holes. However, birdies on the 12th, 13thand 18th holes helped her to repair the damage and she finished two shots adrift of the leader. Shweta Galande played a birdie-less round with bogeys on the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th and 16th holes to finish in tied third place.

Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi is placed fifth after the first round. She too played a birdie-less round with six bogeys on the 2nd, 3rd, 11th, 14th, 15th and 18th holes. Delhi’s Ankita Tiwana and Jaipur’s Afshan Fatima are placed tied sixth with identical totals of 7 over 79, followed by Amateur Tvesa Malik and Nikki Ponappa at tied 8th with 8 over 80.