Bengaluru, July 22 (IANS): Rookie Amandeep Drall carded the only under-par score of 2 under 70 to grab the lead on Day 1 of the 12th leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour at the Prestige Golfshire here on Wednesday.
Trailing her in second position by four strokes are Kolkata's Neha Tripathi, Panchkula's Gursimar Badwal and Delhi's Vani Kapoor at the Rs.6 lakh event that will culminate on July 24.
Amandeep, who is second in the money list and chasing her maiden professional title, started well playing a flawless front nine. She carded birdies on the second and third holes. She began the back-nine with a bogey on the 10th but a birdie on the last hole was enough to see her finish ahead of the pack in the first round.
Neha had an inconsistent round and dropped shots on the second, third and 16th along with a double bogey on the seventh. However, her total of three birdies on the fourth, fifth and 12th, a record for the day that she shared with Amandeep, helped her to control the damage.
Gursimar carded two birdies on the fourth and ninth but bogeys on the second, seventh, eighth and 13th undid her good work and she had to be content with tied second. Order of Merit leader Vani carded a lone birdie on the eighth and dropped a shot on the sixth. She played a birdie-less back-nine with a double bogey on the 10th to end the day with a score of 2 over 74.
Delhi's Mehar Atwal and amateur Trisha Sunil are tied fifth with identical scores of 3 over 75. Mehar carded one birdie on the 17th while dropping shots on the sixth, 10th, 14th and 18th. Trisha started well with two birdies on the first and fourth but bogeys on the second, ninth and 18th along with a double on the fifth meant that she ended the day with a score of 3 over 75.
Local girl Sharmila Nicollet, Delhi's Ankita Tiwana and Afshan Fatima of Jaipur are tied seventh with identical scores of 4 over 76. Nicollet carded two birdies on the third and 13th with bogeys on the first and 11th along with the same number of double bogeys on the seventh and 10th.
Ankita played a birdie-less round with bogeys on fifth, sixth, seventh and 10th. Afshan dropped five shots on the second, third, fourth, eighth and 13th, carding a lone birdie on the 16th.
Chandigarh's Saaniya Sharma and Delhi's Gauri Monga are tied 10th with identical scores of 5 over 77.