Golfer Vani takes centre stage

Vani Kapoor played the only under par round of 3 under 67 to grab the lead in the fourth leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour here Thursday.

Overnight leader Sharmila Nicollet could not sustain the momentum and slipped to third place in the Rs.6 lakh event being played at Tollygunge Club which will culminate Feb 6.

Order of Merit leader Vani started on a good note, carding a birdie on the second hole. However, she faltered immediately thereafter and holed consecutive bogies on the third and fourth.

Quickly regaining her composure, Vani fired four more birdies on the seventh, eighth, 10th and 11th to finish with a total score of 141 after the second round.

Trailing Vani by five strokes is Kolkata's Neha Tripathi. Neha played a cautious round, carding two birdies on the second and 13th along with three bogies on the first, seventh and 14th. However, a double bogey on the 17th spoilt her scoreline and she had to be content with a score of 3 over 73.

Sharmila had an indifferent day as she played a birdie-less front nine with bogies on the first, third, sixth and ninth. Her back nine ran a similar script as she carded two double bogies on the 10th and 17th with a lone birdie on the 15th.

She is tied third with Kiran Matharu with identical scores of 147 after 36 holes. Kiran carded two birdies on the second and 13th with five bogies on the third, fourth, ninth, 15th and 16th. She also carded a double bogey on the first and finished the round with a score of 5 over 75.

Veteran Smriti Mehra is fifth with a total score of 149. She is followed by Delhi's Ankita Tiwana, Pune's Shweta Galande and Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal, all tied at sixth with identical scores of 151. Delhi's Gauri Monga and Panchkula's Amandeep Drall are ninth and 10th, respectively.