Vani and Pallavi lead amidst difficult conditions

On a day where only eight birdies were carded, Vani Kapoor and Pallavi Jain came out on top after the first round of the season-opener of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour tournament, here today.
Vani and Pallavi, playing in contrasting styles, carded an identical score of 4 over 76, and were closely followed by the Kolkata duo of Neha Tripathi and Smriti Mehra with a score of 5 over 77 and 6 over 78 respectively.
Delhi girl Vani had an indifferent start as she carded a double bogey on the second hole. She added to her woes with two bogies on the 3rd and 5th holes.

Her lone birdie on the 8th hole came to her only rescue in the front nine. However, the Hero Order of Merit 2014 winner controlled her game in the back nine and showed nerves of a seasoned professional to grab the lead for the day carding just one more bogey on the 13th hole.
Contrary to Vani, Jaipur golfer Pallavi took a lot of risks and carded four birdies on the day on the 1st, 2nd 9th and 17th holes, maximum by any golfer.
However, she also carded eight bogies on the 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th holes. She is tied in the first position with Delhi youngster with an identical score of 4 over 76 after the first round.

Neha Tripathi had a quiet day, playing a birdie-less round to card a score of 5 over 77. She had bogies on the 1st, 8th, 9th, 11th and 15th holes. She is placed third followed by veteran Smriti, who too struggled with the conditions and played a birdie-less round.
She carded six bogies on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 13th and 15th holes. She finished the day with a score of 6 over 78.
Pune's Shweta Galande is placed fifth with a score of 7 over 79, one stroke ahead of Delhi's Ankita Tiwana. Kapurthala Golfer, Gursimar Badwal is placed seventh after 18 holes, followed by Chandigarh golfers Saaniya Sharma, Amandeep Drall and Preetinder Kaur.