Ahmedabad: Mehar Atwal and Kiran Matharu returned with identical scores of 3 over 75 in the first round to grab the lead in the first leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour at the Kensville Golf & Country Club here on Tuesday. Trailing them in third position by a single stroke is Vani Kapoor. The INR 7,00,000 event featuring 13 professionals will culminate on 7th January.

Delhi’s Mehar Atwal had an indifferent start, dropping consecutive shots on the 1st and 2nd holes. Thereafter, she seemed to settle down but a double on the 7th further added to her woes. She played with much more control in the latter half, carding two birdies on the 12th and 16th holes with a lone bogey on the 13th. Overseas player Kiran Matharu carded two bogies on the 2nd and 7th holes, with a lone birdie on the 6th hole. She added another birdie on the 13th hole and looked set to grab the sole lead, but three consecutive bogies on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes meant she had to share the lead with Mehar Atwal.

Delhi’s Vani Kapoor carded 4 over 76 to finish the day at third position. Her round consisted of two birdies on the 8th and 14th holes along with six bogies on the 2nd, 6th, 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th holes. Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal and Pune’s Shweta Galande returned with identical scores of 7 over 79 to be place tied fourth after 18 holes. Gursimar Badwal played a birdie-less round with five bogies on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 10th and 14th holes and a double on the 16th. Shweta Galande too struggled with the conditions and dropped five shots on the 3rd, 8th, 14th, 15th and 17th holes, with a double on the 13th.

Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma and Delhi’s Ankita Tiwana are tied sixth after the first round, both returning with the same scores 8 over 80. Following them in tied 8th position are Jaipur’s Afshan Fatima and Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi. The only highlight of the day was the first eagle of the season by Smriti Mehra on the 14th hole.