Siddhi Kapoor stuns seniors to grab lead

On a day when seasoned professionals struggled with a narrow and tricky course, rookie Siddhi Kapoor showed glimpses of her immense talent and carded an impressive 2 under 70 to grab the lead in the first round of the 14^th Leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour at the Delhi Golf Club here on Tuesday. Following her in joint second position are Gursimar Badwal and amateur Shreya Ghei at 2 over 74. The INR 7,00,000 event will culminate on 29^th September.

Kolkata’s Siddhi Kapoor had an indifferent start and carded a bogey on the very first hole. She added two more bogeys on the 3^rd and 5^th holes in her front nine. However, she turned things around in remarkable fashion and fired six birdies on the 6^th, 7^th, 9^th, 12^th, 14^th and 17^th while dropping a lone shot on the 18^th. She finished the round with a score of 2 under 70 to take the pole position for the first time in her professional career.

Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal and amateur Shreya Ghei are tied for the second position with identical scores of 2 over 74. Gursimar played a birdie less round with bogeys on the 3^rd and 11^thholes to finish four strokes adrift of the leader. Shreya carded two birdies on the 2^nd and 7^thholes along with an equal number of bogeys on the 5^th and 8^th in her front nine. She played a birdie less back nine with bogeys on the 10^th and 14^th.

Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi and Panchkula’s Amandeep Drall finished the round in tied fourth position with identical scores of 3 over 75. Neha’s card on the day included a birdie on the 7^thhole along with bogeys on the 5^th, 11^th, 15^th and 16^th. Amandeep’s round too followed a similar script, as she carded a birdie on the 7^th hole, while dropping shots on the 3^rd, 4^th, 6^th and 9^th.

Delhi’s Vani Kapoor, Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma and Pune’s Shweta Galande are all tied for the sixth position with identical scores of 4 over 76. Vani had a rare off day in the park. She dropped five shots on the 1^st, 4^th, 9^th, 10^th and 16^th holes, while carding the lone birdie of her round on the 7^th. Saaniya started impressively and carded a birdie on the very first hole. However, she could not add any more birdies to her tally, and dropped shots on the 9^th and 13^th holes along with a triple on the 3^rd. Shweta’s round included three birdies on the 6^th, 7^th and 12^th holes, along with bogeys on the 3^rd, 4^th, 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 15^th and 16^th.

Delhi’s Mehar Atwal and Noida’s Vaishavi Sinha are tied for the ninth position at 5 over 77, followed by Ankita Tiwana at 6 over 78.