Gursimar claims ninth leg
Gursimar Badwal found her touch in time to return a four-under 68, by far the best round of the day, to grab her maiden title of the season as she won the ninth leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour 2017 in Bengaluru on Friday.
The 24-year-old Kapurthala golfer, who had shot 71 and 75 in her first two rounds, took her total to two-under 214.
This is only the second win for Gursimar on the Hero WPGT and her first win came 18 months ago at the BPGC, when she won the fifth leg of the Tour.
Gursimar finished two shots ahead of overnight leader Neha Tripathi, who tripped on the final day with a 75 and ended at even par 216.
Playing in the second last group, Gursimar started the day five shots behind Neha. But Gursimar gave herself a good chance with birdies in her first three holes. In the meantime, overnight leader, Neha, playing in the last group had a string of bogeys and a double-bogey to start with.
As Neha dropped four shots in first four holes, Gursimar gained two. The swing of six shots meant the Kapurthala girl had moved ahead. From there Gursimar made no mistakes and despite a bogey on the ninth she had three fine birdies on the back nine.
Gursimar finished at twounder 214 and waited for the final group, which had Gaurika, who had a chance of picking up another title but faltered with a double bogey and a bogey. Gaurika finished with a round of 74 and a total of 217, and was third behind Gursimar and Neha.
Amateurs Pranavi Urs (71) and Ridhima Dilawari (74) tied for fourth place at two-over 218. Mehar Atwal (71) was sixth at 221.
Amandeep Drall (74) and Afshan Fatima (71) were tied seventh at 223, while Vani Kapoor had her worst result of the season on the domestic tour with a final round of 78, also her worst for the week. With 225 she tied with Suchitra Ramesh (72) for 9th place.
The results of the ninth leg kept the top three in the same positions on the Hero order of Merit. Gaurika was still first with Amandeep and Vani at second and third. However, Gursimar leapt from seventh to fourth, while Saaniya Sharma slipped to fifth.
Also moving up was Neha, whose second place in the ninth leg saw her rise from eighth to sixth.
The tenth leg is scheduled at the KGA, Bengaluru, from Wednesday.