25 July 2018: Neha Tripathi, fresh from an energising sojourn to the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, got off to a rousing start in the tenth leg of the WGAI Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour. She is in a three way logjam at the top with amateur golfer Seher Atwal and Tvesa Malik, each posting two under 70 in the opening round at Clover Greens.
Neha took a long and winding road to end the day under par. She survived a double bogey seven at the seventh hole and two other bogeys. The first one came at the 375 yard par-4 first hole.
She made amends immediately though, getting up and down nicely on the par-5 second hole to score her first birdie of the day. The Kolkata golfer would go on to make six birdies through a mostly fluent trek around the course.
Neha, second on the Hero Order of Merit, marginally behind Tvesa was on a real tear on the second nine. She made three birdies in five holes starting from the par-3 13thhole, but a bogey at the 18thhole dropped her back to two under for the day.
Seher started her day with a bang. She made back to back birdies and was slicing through the front nine like butter. But her only bogey of the round came at the 310 yard eighth hole, robbing her of the momentum.
To her credit, she came home without any further damage, She made par on 9 of the ten holes, splitting them down the middle with a birdie at the par-5 14thhole.
Tvesa got her work done on the home stretch. She made the turn in even, settling the dues from two bogeys with birdies at the 5thand 9thholes. A bogey at the 10ththreatened to ruin the tempo of her round, but she took control with three birdies for her 70.
Amandeep Drall scored three birdies in her one under score of 71.
Gaurika Bishnoi made a couple of birdies on the front nine, but she also conceded three birdies to sign on a 73. She was joined in T5 by Vani Kapoor. The Delhi girl is back from a European sojourn and despite playing with great discipline, Vani paid the price of bogeys at the 3rdand 18thholes.
