Ridhima Dilawari moves to Chennai to try and keep her winning momentum going as the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour tees off on Wednesday at the TNGF’s Cosmo Golf Course. Ridhima, winner of the first leg by a whopping five shots, shot all three rounds under par at the Prestige Golfshire in Bengaluru.
She faces a strong challenge from the likes of Vani Kapoor, Pranavi Urs, Amandeep Drall, and young Hitaashee Bakshi among others in the second leg. The purse for the second week running will be Rs.10 lakhs.
Ridhima, who was not in the form she would have liked to be in when the Tour resumed in December, has since continued to work hard on various aspects of her game. She was unable to go for the China LPGA Tour 2020 for which she had qualified but put aside all disappointment and continued to train. However, with no tournaments in sight it was not easy to stay motivated.
She revealed, “Apart from putting and other aspects, I have also been trying to work on the mental aspect a little bit and trying to get myself to score a little better. I think even if you get everything right in practice and the swing is looking good, it is a different thing to put it all together and shoot a good score so I’ve been trying to focus a lot on that and try to make as many birdies as possible.”
It showed at Bengaluru’s Prestige Golfshire as she shot 71-67-71 and won by a big margin of five shots.
Among others showing good form in Bengaluru were Pranavi Urs 73-71-70 and Vani Kapoor 72-74-70. Vani’s return to form was also welcome.
One player who had a surprising dip in form was Amandeep Drall, the leader on the combined 2020-2021 Hero Order of Merit. Winner of two events in 2020, Amandeep started well with 71 but her 78-75 in the second and third rounds saw her finish T-9, a low finish for the normally consistent Panchkula professional.
Hitaashee Bakshi, winner of the last event in 2020 finished Tied-6th last week, and will also be looking at getting back to the winner’s circle.
Two amateurs, Disha Kavery, who was fourth and Sneha Sharan, who was Tied-sixth, will be adding to their experience as they tee up again this week.
Ridhima will go out in the first three-ball alongside Rhea Purvi Saravanan and Mehar Atwal. Another marquee group will be Pranavi Urs, Amandeep Drall and Rhea Jha while Vani Kapoor will play with promising amateur Avani Prashanth and the most recent professional Durga Nittur.
WGAI Tour Release, Jan 19, 2021
