Gursimar Badwal cruises to a comfortable five-shot win in second leg of Hero WPG Tour

Gursimar shot four-under 68 for the second time in three days to total five-under 211 and win by five shots over Amandeep Drall (72)

405
Gursimar Badwal in action during final round at Oxford

Jan 25, 2019: Gursimar Badwal gave her rivals absolutely no chance from the word go on the final day and wrapped up her first title of 2019 by winning the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Oxford Golf Resort on Friday. Gursimar shot four-under 68 for the second time in three days to total five-under 211 and win by five shots over Amandeep Drall (72), who ended at even par 216.

Tvesa Malik (72) was third at three-over 219, while Neha Tripathi (72), winner of the first leg, was fourth at five-over 221. Sifat Alag (77) was fifth.

Gursimar, who led by five shots after the first day, had allowed that lead to shrink to just one after the second day.

However, on the final day on Friday, she made birdies on the first and the third, even as her playing partner and nearest rival, Amandeep Drall bogeyed the first hole. Gursimar stayed focused and shot two-under 34 for the front nine, as Amandeep carded 37 to allow the gap to swell from one shot to four.

Tvesa Malik, who was four behind after 36 holes, fell another two behind as she was even par for the front nine.

Gursimar pulled away even more decisively on the back nine as she birdied 10th, 11th and 14th, but also dropped a shot on Par-4 12th. Once again she had the best back nine score of two-under 34.

When Gursimar birdied the Par-3 14th, she was sitting on a six-shot lead and she made no mistakes in the last four holes. Amandeep had too much to do in too few holes and managed only one more birdie on par-5 16th to finish second.

Tvesa, who had two birdies on ninth and 10th and bogeys on eighth and 18th was third and missed some birdie chances.

Behind Neha and Sifat, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, were Gaurika Bishnoi (75) at sixth and Ananya Datar (77) at seventh. Siddhi Kapoor (75), Afshan Fatima (79) and Millie Saroha (80) were all Tied-8th at 233.

Despite finishing fourth, Neha stayed on top of the Hero Order of Merit with winnings of Rs.2,16,000, followed by Amandeep Drall who has Rs.1,76,000. Gursimar, winner this week, trails Amandeep by a mere Rs.1,600, and at Rs.1,74,400, Afshan Fatima is fourth.

The action now shifts to Ahmedabad, where the third leg will be played from February 4 to 7 at the Kensville Golf and Country Club, while the fourth leg will be held at the Kalhaar Blues and Greens, also in Ahmedabad.

Source: WGAI Tour