Amateur Asmitha shares lead with Vani

Amateurs are having a great week, as Asmitha Sathish grabbed a share of the lead at the end of the second day of the sixth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Classic Golf & Country Club in Gurugram. Asmitha, who shot 74 on the first day, added oneunder 71 to reach one-over 145 and share the lead with Vani Kapoor (73-72).

A day after the other amateur in the field, Hunar Mittal, held the first round lead, Asmitha (74-71) moved into joint lead after 36 holes. The first round leader, also an amateur, Hunar found birdies to come by difficult on the second day as she carded 77 and slipped to tied-seventh. Asmitha and Hunar were part of the Indian team for the 42nd Queen Sirikit Cup which was due to be held in Indonesia this week. However, with Covid19 forcing the postponement of the tournament, the pair teed up at the Hero WPGT event.

Gursimar Badwal, who had a disappointing 79 on first day, improved by as much as 12 shots in the second round with five-under 67 to rise to tied-third alongside Pranavi Urs (71). As many as four players shot under par scores in the second round.

Neha Tripathi (73-74) lies fifth while Siddhi Kapoor (75-73) is sixth. Hunar Mittal shares seventh place with Oviya Reddi (7574), Saaniya Sharma (79-71) and Khushi Khanijau (78-73) complete the top 10 with one round to go.

Asmitha Sathish began with a birdie on first and added another on third. A bogey on fifth followed by a birdie on eighth meant she turned in two-under. Back-to-back bogeys on 10th and 11thbrought her back to par, before a birdie on 12th once again saw her get to one-under. A bogey on 15th and a birdie on Par-3 17th saw her finish the day at 71.

Vani’s card included birdies on seventh and ninth on front nine and a third one on 18thand the bogeys on 11th, 12thand 16th. Gursimar, who struggled on the first day, had an incredible eight birdies in her round as she shot 34-33 for the two halves. Four birdies in the first five holes and four more on the last six holes were the highlight of the day. In between she had back-toback bogeys on seventh and eighth and then another on 10thbefore the surge of birdies on 13th, 15th, 17th and 18th. Pranavi had two birdies on front nine on third and seventh and a bogey on 17thin her 71.