Golfer Vani fires four-under to grab lead in first round

Promising golfer Vani Kapoor played an impressive round of four under 68 on the first day to grab the lead in the eighth leg of the Rs 6,00,000 Hero women's Professional Tour at the Eagleton Golf Resort here on Wednesday.

Trailing Vani in second position is Kolkata's Neha Tripathi at one under 71 while Delhi girl Gauri Monga is placed third with a score of one over 73.

Vani started impressively and played a blemish-free front-nine with a birdie on the 8th hole. The Delhi girl faltered and carded a bogey on the 12th hole in her back-nine, but quickly regained her composure and fired four consecutive birdies on the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th holes to finish the round at 4 under 68.

Hero Order of Merit leader Neha, who played a bogey free round of one under 71, carded the lone birdie of her round on the 6th hole.

Third-placed Gauri carded a birdie and a bogey apiece on the 3rd and 7th holes respectively and then went on to add another birdie on the 10th hole in her back-nine.

However, two dropped shots on the 12th and 16th meant that she had to be content with the third position.

Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal had an indifferent start and carded three bogeys on the 1st, 2nd and 6th holes. She played with much more control in the latter half, playing an even par back-nine to finish the round in fourth position with a score of 3 over 75.

Chandigarh's Saaniya Sharma and amateur Suchitra Ramesh are placed tied fifth with identical scores of four over 76 after 18 holes.

Saaniya's card on the day included three bogeys on the 8th, 10th and 18th holes along with a double bogey on the 11th hole. She also carded a birdie on the 9th hole.

Suchitra's eventful round included three birdies on the 1st, 8th and 9th holes along with seven bogies on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th and 16th.

Pune's Shweta Galande is placed seventh with a score of five over 77, followed by Delhi's Mehar Atwal and Jaipur's Afshan Fatima in tied eighth position at 79.

--IANS

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