Tvesa, Siddhi open up big lead
Tvesa and Siddhi carded 73s each to move to five-over 147. Saaniya Sharma and Smriti Mehra, made 11-shot improvements on their first round scores
Tvesa Malik, who won her first event as a professional two months ago in July, moved into the shared lead with Siddhi Kapoor in the second round of the 12th leg of the Hero WPGT at the DGC here on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Tvesa and Siddhi, still two months short of her 20th birthday, carded 73s each to move to five-over 147. The latter is defending her only professional title. Saaniya Sharma, winner of the 11th leg, and Smriti Mehra, made whopping 11-shot improvements on their first round scores to bring in 71s against 82s in the first round.
Also sharing third place with them was Gursimar Badwal (77) — at 153 the trailing trio six shots behind the leaders.
Tvesa may well have been in the sole lead but for a crippling triple bogey and another bogey. She turned in three-over 39, but on the back nine was error free with two birdies for a 34.
Siddhi dropped three shots in all against two birdies.
The day’s best cards came from Smriti and Saaniya, who had the only sub-par rounds so far in the tournament.
Smriti had three birdies, all in the last six holes against two bogeys, while Saaniya had three birdies and one double.
Afshan Fatima, one of the three co-leaders after the first round, faltered in the second with a 80 that saw her drop to 10-over 154 and sixth place.
Mehar Atwal (79-78) and Gaurika Bishnoi (77-80) were tied seventh, while Trisha Sunil (8279) was ninth and Ankita Tiwana (83-81) tenth.
In the final round, Tvesa and Siddhi will play alongside Smriti in the final group, while the second to last group will see Saaniya with Gursimar Badwal and Afshan Fatima.