Tvesa, Gursimar ready for fresh battle
Tvesa Malik, who won last week to top of the Hero Order of Merit on the Women’s Pro Golf Tour, will start among the favourites for the fifth leg as the Tour arrives to in northern India for the first time this season.
The first four legs, all in the West in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune, produced different winners, making the upcoming event in Greater Noida a wide open affair.
Even though Vani Kapoor, Amandeep Drall, Sharmila Nicollet and Gaurika Bishnoi are at the Australia Ladies Classic at Bonville Resort in New South Wales, the field has a strong feel about it. Vani and Sharmila, who have since been overseas, won the first two events of the current season. Gursimar Badwal won the third leg while Tvesa was victorious in the fourth.
Tvesa and Gursimar, who are first and second respectively on the Order of Merit, have been the most consistent so far.
Both have won once each and also finished second on one occasion. In addition, Tvesa was T3 in the first leg and sole third in the third.
Gursimar was third alongside Tvesa in the opening leg.
Tvesa’s poorest finish this year has been the T- 3, while Gursimar’s has been fifth in the last leg. So, both are in good form and the battle should be engrossing. Meanwhile Neha Tripathi, who turned 26 a day before the fifth leg, will be seeking a win as a birthday present to set her up for the rest of the season.
Another player seeking to open her account will be Saaniya Sharma. Both have come close to winning in some of the previous events and will attempt to go better this week.
Another player to catch the eye has been the Chennai- born Bengaluru- based Suchitra Ramesh. The 18- year- old, who turned professional last year, came close in the fourth leg at Pune, where she finished runnerup to Tvesa. It was Suchitra’s best result of the season. She was earlier 10th in the first leg and T- 8 in the second.