Hosur: Gursimar Badwal went on a rampage with eight birdies against two bogeys in the second round of the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour. She carded six-under 66 at Clover Greens on Thursday and that equaled the season’s best round by Neha Tripathi in the second round of the first leg at Poona Club Golf Course and Ridhima Dilawari’s 66 at the Jaypee Greens in the sixth leg.
Gursimar, who won the second leg and was third in the fifth leg, is now four shots clear of Gaurika Bishnoi, who followed her first round 71 with a two-under 70. Overnight leader Amandeep Drall added another 71, which was her seventh successive sub-par round at Clover Greens.
Tvesa Malik (70) and Millie Saroha (71) were tied for fourth at even par 144.
Overall, the quality of golf was very impressive as seven players shot under and another three were at par for the second round. The top three players were under par for 36 holes and two more were even par.
The star of the day was Gursimar, who set the pace with a blistering front nine. She had back-to-back birdies on second and third and followed up with two more on fifth and seventh. She turned in four-under 33 and she had birdies in each of the three Par-5s.
She went to five-under on tenth but dropped her first shot on Par-4 11th. Then followed a hat-trick of birdies from the 12th, including the Par-5 14th, which meant she gained a shot on each Par-5. At that stage she was seven-under with four holes to go. She, however, bogeyed the Par-3 16th and parred the rest for a 66 and a total of seven-under 137.
Gaurika had a sedate front nine with one bogey on ninth and was still one-over after 11 holes. She birdied 12th and 14th to get into red numbers. Another birdie on Par-3 16th brought her to two-under. She traded a bogey with a birdie on the last two holes to sign in for 70 and a total of 141.
Amandeep Drall dropped to third place as she birdied three times and bogeyed twice for 71 and got to two-under 142. Amandeep has won the last two Hero WPGT events at Clover Greens, both in 2018.
Amateur Pranavi Urs (69), Tvesa Malik (70), Millie Saroha (71) and another amateur Asmitha Sathish (70) carded under-par rounds, while Astha Madan, Jyotsana Singh and Sonam Chugh carded even par 72 each.
Gursimar had the best front nine of four-under 33 while amateur Asmitha was the best on the back nine with four-under 31.
Tee times: Round 2: 7th Leg of Hero WPG Tour ay Clover Greens:
8:30 AM: Neeharika Thangamma 172 (82-90), Suchitra Ramesh 170 (85-85);
8:40 AM: Komal Chaudhary 167 (79-88), Ayesha Kapur 161 (77-84);
8:50 AM: Tanirika Singh 159 (80-79), Oviya Reddi 159 (80-79), Anousha Tripathi 159 (81-78);
9:00 AM: Gauri Karhade 158 (77-81), Mehar Atwal 157 (79-78), Ishvari Prasanna 153 (75-78);
9:10 AM: Siddhi Kapoor 153 (77-76), Anisha Padukone 153 (79-74), Smriti Mehra 152 (78-74);
9: 20 AM: Sonam Chugh 151 (79-72), Sneha Sharan (A) 150 (76-74), Jyotsana Singh 148 (76-72);
9: 30 AM: Neha Tripathi 147 (72-75), Khushi Khanijau 147 (73-74), Ridhima Dilawari 147 (73-74);
9: 40 AM: Asmitha Sathish (A) 146 (76-70), Ananya Datar 145 (72-73), Astha Madan 145 (73-72);