Nalini ready to challenge Smriti in 6th leg of Hero-WGAI tour

Nalini, who had a string of top-3 finishes before finally getting her win last week, is also second on the Order of Merit and yet another win could see her close in on the leader, Smriti Mehra, who is the only multiple winner so far this year.

With Sharmila Nicollet focusing on the Ladies European Tour after the first two events in South, the battle for honours has been between veteran Smriti and the youth brigade led by Nalini and Vani Kapoor, who won the third leg of the Tour at Clover Greens in Prestige Golfshire.

The Golden Greens is 6305 yards long and playing to par 72 and could well be a good test for the golfers if the breeze picks up. They will also need to contend with the heat.

Thus far in the six legs played so far, there have been five different winners. Sharmila won the opening leg in Bengaluru, but Smriti and Vani won the next two, before Smriti won again in Srinagar.

The sixth leg was won by Nalini. Two other girls who would be looking to put themselves in the winners' circle would be Neha Tripathi and Saaniya Sharma, who have won in the past but not this year.

In the opening round, Vani Kapoor goes out in the first group with Nalini while Smriti is in the last group with Vandana Aggarwal and amateur Rashika Chauhan.