Sep 10, 2019: The leading nine players on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour’s dynamic Order of Merit have all secured their spot in the flagship event, the US$ 500,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open (HWIO) to be held next month. With 13 events of the season completed on the domestic Tour, Gaurika Bishnoi, who had a Top-15 finish at the HWIO in 2018, is leading the Order of Merit and is followed by the seasoned Neha Tripathi.
The next seven are Amandeep Drall, Ridhima Dilawari, Gursimar Badwal, Afshan Fatima, Siddhi Kapoor, Ananya Datar and Khushi Khanijau.
The US $ 500,000 event will be played from October 3 to 6, 2019 on the Gary Player layout at the DLF Golf and Country Club.
Two players who have not played 80 per cent of the events to qualify for the Order of merit, but have won events, have also been given a spot. They are Tvesa Malik, a three-time winner in six starts, and rookie Gauri Karhade.
In addition, following players have also been given a spot in the tournament. They are Smriti Mehra, Vani Kapoor, Diksha Dagar and amateur Sneha Singh, who won a tournament on the pro Tour this year. Three international players, Melanie Maetzler of Switzerland, Liu Yan of China and Renuka Suksukont of Thailand have also been given berths.
Three amateurs, Seher Atwal, Nishtha Madan and Pranavi Urs are in the field on the basis of their World Amateur Golf Rankings, while Hyderabad amateur Sneha Singh gets in as a winner and another spot has been given to the talented Anika Verma.
The HWIO celebrates its 10th anniversary on the Ladies European Tour and is now in its 13th staging.
The tournament first began in 2007 with a purse of US $ 100,000 and it grew to US $ 300,000 when Hero took over the title sponsorship in 2010.
It is now worth half a million dollars, which is equivalent to Rs. 3.6 crores. The winner takes home US $ 75,000, approximately Rs. 54 lakhs.
Some of the established international participants who have entered the field include the defending champion Becky Morgan, the 2017 winner Camille Chevalier, other leading names like Beth Allen and Becky Brewerton, both former LET Order of Merit winners and other LET winners including Meghan MacLaren, Marianne Skarpnord, Kanyalak Preedasuttijit, Astrid Vayson de Pradenne, Florentyna Parker and Linda Wessberg. Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew has also entered for the tournament.
Asian Tour Release
