Woman golfer Vani fires 66 to grab opening round lead

Vani Kapoor fired five-under 66 to grab the opening round lead in the 14th leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour 2015 at the Clover Greens course here on Wednesday.

Delhi's Vani started the pursuit of her fifth title of the season with a bang, carding three birdies in her front nine on the first, second and fourth holes, while dropping a lone shot on the ninth.

The Hero Order of Merit leader kept the momentum going in the second half as well, carding four birdies on the 11th, 14th, 15th and 17th holes, along with a bogey on the 16th hole. Her tally of seven birdies was highest by any player on the first day of the three-day event.

Trailing her by a two stroke deficit in second position was lcal star Sharmila Nicollet. Sharmila, who returned to the Tour after missing a couple of events due to her European Tour commitments, was in good touch and fired a flawless round of 68. She birdied the first, seventh and ninth holes.

Rookie Amandeep Drall returned with a 70 to finish third as she carded two birdies in her front nine on the fourth and fifth holes, along with an equal number of bogeys on the third and ninth holes. She played a bogey-free back nine with a lone birdie on the 12th.

Kolkata's Neha Tripathi got a 71 to finish fourth while Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal scored three-over 74 to end the day in fifth position.

The Delhi duo of Ankita Tiwana and Gauri Monga, along with Pune's Shweta Galande are in tied sixth place with identical scores of 75 after 18 holes.

Jaipur's Afshan Fatima was ninth wih a 77 while Delhi's Meh ar Atwal and amateur Trisha Sunil of Bangalore shared the 10th position on 78.