Kiran retains lead; Smriti sets a new Tour record

Kiran Matharu fired a sizzling six-under 66 on the second day to retain a one-stroke lead over veteran Smriti Mehra in the eighth leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour here today.
Smriti carded seven-under 65 on the day to take her total score to 134 after the second round and set the stage for an exciting finish.
Smriti rewrote WGAI's record books by registering the lowest single round score on the Tour, bettering her own record of six-under 72 at Clover Greens in 2013.
She also established a new course record by a lady golfer at the Classic Golf & Country Club.

The other highlight of an exciting day was an eagle by Saaniya Sharma on the 14th hole. The Rs 7,00,000 event is being played at the Classic Golf & Country Club here and will culminate on March 13th.
Kiran had a scratchy start, carding a bogey on the 1st hole. However, she made amends by carding four birdies on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th holes in her front nine. She retained the momentum on her back nine, firing four consecutive birdies on the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th holes, while dropping just one shot on the 16th.

Smriti was on song as she dropped only one bogey on the second hole before picking up eight birdies on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 14th and 18th holes.

Hero Order of Merit leader Vani Kapoor made a strong comeback in the second round, after her even par effort on the first day. She carded six-under 66 to be placed third with a total of 138 after the second round.
She fired birdies on the 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th and 15th holes. The only blemish on her score card was a bogey on the 17th hole.
Noida's Vaishavi Sinha is placed fourth with a total score of 139, while Pune's Shweta Galande is in the fifth position and Kolkata's Neha Tripathi was placed sixth, followed by Panchkula's Amandeep Drall and Priya Puri, who are tied seventh with identical totals of 146.