Sharmila in early lead at Hero golf

Bangalore's Sharmila Nicollet took an early lead after the first round of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour at the Jaypee Greens here Wednesday.

Sharmila played a bogey free round to finish ahead of veteran Smriti Mehra and Pune's Shweta Galande, who are tied second after 18 holes.

Sharmila wasn't in the best of form coming into the tournament but she turned things around to card the day's only under par score of 1 under 71. She played a consistent round in tough conditions and carded a lone birdie on the 12th hole. Trailing Sharmila by one shot are Smriti and Shweta with a score of par 72.

Smriti's front nine consisted of two bogies on the second and fourth holes along with a birdie on the sixth. She carded two more birdies on the 12th and 16th and looked set to share the lead but faltered on the last hole to drop to second.

Shweta, on the other hand, played a controlled round to card one birdie on the sixth and a bogey on the 12th.

Local girl Vaishavi Sinha and Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal are tied fourth with a score of 2 over 74.

Vaishavi, playing in her fourth event of the tour, started impressively. She played a bogey free front nine with a birdie on the fifth hole. However, her back nine wasn't as impressive and she faltered to card three bogies on the 14th, 15th and 17th.

Gursimar took the honours for maximum birdies, carding four birdies on the sixth, 13th 15th and 16th. However, she also carded four bogies on the 4th, 12th, 14th and 18th with a double bogey on the seventh.

Delhi's Ankita Tiwana is sixth with 3 over 75. She carded four bogies on the second, 14th, 15th and 17th. Her only birdie came on the 16th.

Kolkata's Neha Tripathi is seventh, just ahead of Order of Merit leader Vani Kapoor. Both Neha and Vani had a forgettable outing and struggled to get any momentum going. Neha finished with 5 over 77 while Vani finished with 6 over 78.

Pallavi Jain and Saaniya Sharma are tied ninth followed by Priya Puri and Preetinder Kaur.

The Rs.5 lakh event will culminate Oct 31.