Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour 2016–Leg 14: Siddhi Kapoor stuns seniors to grab lead

Siddhi KapoorNew Delhi: On a day when seasoned professionals struggled with a narrow and tricky course, rookie Siddhi Kapoor showed glimpses of her immense talent and carded an impressive 2 under 70 to grab the lead in the first round of the 14th Leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour at the Delhi Golf Club here on Tuesday. Following her in joint second position are Gursimar Badwal and amateur Shreya Ghei at 2 over 74. The INR 7,00,000 event will culminate on 29th September.

Kolkata’s Siddhi Kapoor had an indifferent start and carded a bogey on the very first hole. She added two more bogeys on the 3rd and 5th holes in her front nine. However, she turned things around in remarkable fashion and fired six birdies on the 6th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 14th and 17th while dropping a lone shot on the 18th. She finished the round with a score of 2 under 70 to take the pole position for the first time in her professional career.

Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal and amateur Shreya Ghei are tied for the second position with identical scores of 2 over 74. Gursimar played a birdie less round with bogeys on the 3rd and 11th holes to finish four strokes adrift of the leader. Shreya carded two birdies on the 2nd and 7th holes along with an equal number of bogeys on the 5th and 8th in her front nine. She played a birdie less back nine with bogeys on the 10th and 14th.

Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi and Panchkula’s Amandeep Drall finished the round in tied fourth position with identical scores of 3 over 75. Neha’s card on the day included a birdie on the 7th hole along with bogeys on the 5th, 11th, 15th and 16th. Amandeep’s round too followed a similar script, as she carded a birdie on the 7th hole, while dropping shots on the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th.

Delhi’s Vani Kapoor, Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma and Pune’s Shweta Galande are all tied for the sixth position with identical scores of 4 over 76. Vani had a rare off day in the park. She dropped five shots on the 1st, 4th, 9th, 10th and 16th holes, while carding the lone birdie of her round on the 7th. Saaniya started impressively and carded a birdie on the very first hole. However, she could not add any more birdies to her tally, and dropped shots on the 9th and 13th holes along with a triple on the 3rd. Shweta’s round included three birdies on the 6th, 7th and 12th holes, along with bogeys on the 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 15th and 16th.

Delhi’s Mehar Atwal and Noida’s Vaishavi Sinha are tied for the ninth position at 5 over 77, followed by Ankita Tiwana at 6 over 78.