Vani Kapoor wins first leg

Report by Anand Datla

January 09, 2015: Vani Kapoor completed a comfortable wire to wire victory in Ahmedabad to clinch the first leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour. The young golfer lead from start to finish to claim a comprehensive three shot victory over Smriti Mehra. Vani was seven ahead of a vastly improved Amandeep Drall, who finished in third.

Vani made a steady two over 74 on Friday to win the first title of the New Year. She started the day with a comfortable lead and was rarely troubled on another day when none of the golfers broke par at the Kensville Golf Club. One of India’s most promising woman golfers, Vani made four bogeys and two birdies as she marched confidently to victory.

Mehra surged into second with the best round of golf in the final round, at least in terms of numbers. Mehra was one under at the halfway stage, before a 38 on the return stretch dropped her three behind the winner. Her card contained three birdies, which came at the 5th, 7th and 14th holes.

Amandeep is a highly rated golfer and she showed just why, by recovering to finish in third despite an 82 in the first round on Wednesday. She shot 74 for a second straight day to finish four behind Mehra and one better than Neha Tripathi.

Tripathi was mixing it with Vani earlier, but a 78 on Friday saw her slide down the order. She also did no favours to herself, surrendering five bogeys in the final nine holes as she closed the tournament at 15 over 231.

Pallavi Jain, joint leader at the end of the first round finished in fifth. In fact she recovered with a decent effort on the final stretch after giving away as many as five bogeys on the front nine. Pallavi did well to steady her rocking boat to reach the clubhouse at the expense of just one more bogey. She signed off with an overall score of 233, exactly ten strokes behind the winner Vani.