Seher Atwal enters final round as leader for second week running at WPGT

Seher Atwal entered the final round as leader for the second consecutive week when a bogey-free four-under 67 saw her jump to the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes in the fourth leg of the Women's Pro Golf Tour here on Thursday.

Seher followed up her first round of even par 71 with a 67. At four-under 138, she led Tvesa Malik (71-69) by two shots at the Poona Club Golf Course.

Overnight co-leaders Amandeep Drall (68-72) and Hitaashee Bakshi (68-72) slipped to tied-third, while Vani Kapoor (71-70) was fifth. The elder of the two Bakshi sisters, Jahanvi (70-72) was sixth.

With five players under par and one at par, the top six are just four shots apart.

A niece of Indian golf legend Arjun Atwal, young Seher has been showing an upward trend in the season, as she was T-6 in the first leg and then T-10 in the second.

Last week she was fourth after leading by three shots on the final day, as amateur Avani Prashanth took away the honours. Seher, who was on the college golf team at the Rollins in the United States, could be heading for her maiden win on the pro circuit this week.

Seher had just one birdie on the front nine, but she did not drop any shots as she turned in one-under. A birdie on 10th followed by another on 14th saw her get to three-under and she stayed focused to roll in another birdie on the 18th and finish the day at four-under.

Tvesa Malik had three birdies against one bogey, on the Par-5 12th, which she bogeyed on the first day too. She has now dropped three shots on Par-5s, two on the first day and one on the second.

Amandeep seemed to be going fine till she dropped three shots in four holes at the end with bogeys on 15th, 16th and 18th for a 72. Hitaashee had two birdies against three bogeys for her 72.

Amateur Sneha Singh (72-71) was tied seventh alongside Ananya Datar (71-72), while last week's winner, amateur Avani Prashanth, improved her score from 73 to 71 in the second round and was Tied-ninth with Gauri Karhade (72-72).

Among the big names, Ridhima Dilawari (70-75) was T-11, while Gaurika Bishnoi (75-72) and Diksha Dagar (71-76) were Tied-12th.