Neha Tripathi leads Hero golf meet

Kolkata golfer Neha Tripathi finally seemed to have rediscovered her touch to lead the field with level par score on the first day of the 11th leg of Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour 2013 here Tuesday.

The Rs.5 lakh tournament is being played at the historic Delhi Golf Club (DGC) Sep 24-26.

Trailing Neha by a stroke is Delhi's Vani Kapoor, while in-form veteran Delhi golfer Smriti Mehra is third with a total score of two over 74 after the first round.

Neha played a very consistent game here with two bogeys on the 14th and 17th holes and equal number of birdies on the 15th and 18th holes.

Neha, who currently is the Hero Order of Merit leader, finished her first round with a level par score of 72. Delhi golfer Vani Kapoor had a turbulent start with bogeys on the second, fourth, ninth and 10th holes, but recovered to card birdies on the first, third, fifth and 12th holes.

She finished second with a score of one over 73 after 18 holes.

Smriti Mehra finished third with a total score of two over 74 after the first round. The Delhi golfer carded a single birdie on the eighth hole and had three bogeys on the fourth, 15th and 17th holes.

Kolkata's Vandana Agarwal, Delhi's Ankita Tiwana and Hero MotoCorp sponsored Bengaluru golfer Sharmila Nicollet were tied for the fourth place with identical scores of five over 77 after 18 holes.