Golfer Shweta Galande jumps into lead in Jaipur

Pune's Shweta Galande returned with a level par score to leapfrog to the lead on Day 2 of the 18th and final leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour at the Rambagh Golf Club here on Thursday.

Trailing her in the second position is Delhi's Vani Kapoor who finished with a total score of 146 after 36 holes at the Rs.5 lakh event that will conclude on Friday.

Starting the day in third position, Shweta played a cautious front nine, carding two birdies on the fourth and eighth holes along with bogeys on the third, fifth and ninth.

She became more confident as the day progressed and her back nine consisted of two birdies on the 15th and 16th as against a solitary blemish on the 10th to finish with 145 after two days. The Pune professional, who has just one title to her name, now has a splendid opportunity to win her second here.

Overnight leader Vani could not emulate her first day performance and returned a card of five over 76 to slip down the leaderboard. The Order of Merit leader had an error-prone front nine with four bogeys on the first, fourth, sixth and seventh and just a lone birdie on the eighth.

Her fortunes did not change much during the course of the day as she played a birdie-less back nine with a double bogey on the 12th to total 146 and stay a shot adrift of the leader.

Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal and Panchkula's Amandeep Drall ended with identical totals of 147 to finish tied third. Gursimar had an eventful front nine with three birdies on the first, eighth and ninth as against a bogey and a double on the second and seventh. She played a bogey-free back nine with a lone birdie on the 13th to return with 1 under 70, the second best score of the day.

Amandeep's round of 1 over 72 consisted of five birdies on the first, eighth, 11th, 16th and 17th along with bogeys on the fifth, seventh, 10th and 18th and also a double on the ninth. Her tally of five birdies was the maximum by any player on the day.

Kolkata's Neha Tripathi, English woman Kiran Matharu and Delhi's Ankita Tiwana are tied fifth with identical scores of 149.

Neha returned with 2 under 69, the best performance of the day. She started aggressively and carded three birdies on the first, eighth and ninth as against a bogey on the third in her front nine. She avoided taking too much risk on the return journey and played an even par back nine.

Kiran's round of 1 over 72 consisted of four birdies on the second, 13th, 14th and 18th along with five bogeys on the first, fifth, sixth, seventh and 10th.

Ankita, who started the day in second, played erratically and her round of 6 over 77 included five bogeys on the first, third, 10th, 12th, and 13th along with a double on the 16th. Her lone birdie of the day came on the eighth.

Jaipur's Afshan Fatima and Kolkata's Smriti Mehra are tied eighth with 151.