Pune: Amateurs led by Nishna Patel occupied three of the top four places at the end of the first round of the opening leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Poona Club Golf Course.
While Nishna led the charts with a 5-under 66, another amateur Mannat Brar (69) also had an eagle two on the Par-4 fifth and shot 3-under 69 as did professional Hitaashee Bakshi (69). Anuradha Chaudhuri, who has been doing well on the Indian Golf Union’s amateur circuit, carded 1-under 70 to be fourth.
Nishna, who has been part of the Indian amateur team for a while, shot a stunning 5-under 66 which included an eagle 2 on the Par-4 sixth hole, besides four other birdies against just one bogey on the Par-3 13th hole.
Nishna, winner of the Western India Ladies in 2023, was also runner-up at the Asia Pacific Juniors in Manila in 2023.
Hitaashee bogeyed the first and the third for a troubled start, but then recovered with an eagle on the Par-4 fifth and birdies on seventh and 14th.
Mannat Brar, who will be playing at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championships next month in Thailand, opened with a birdie and closed the day with an eagle on the par-5 18th. In between she had two bogeys and a birdie.
Yet another amateur, Anuradha Chaudhuri, had five birdies, including one each on the first and last holes of the day, against one bogey and one double bogey.
The 2023 Hero Order of Merit leader, Sneha Singh (72) was tied fifth alongside Jasmine Shekar and Khushi Khanijau.
Khushi seemed set for a good round as she ran up four birdies against two bogeys on the front nine and added another birdie on the 10th to be three-under. However, she dropped four shots in the last eight holes and ended at 1-over 72.
Seasoned Amandeep Drall (73) and Rhea Jha (73) were tied at eighth. Five players were bunched at Tied-10 and they included Neha Tripathi, Saaniya Sharma, Ananya Garg, Seher Atwal and Shweta Mansingh. They carded 3-over 74 each.
–IANS
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