Gursimar cruises to 5-shot win, Amandeep second

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 25

Gursimar Badwal gave her rivals no chance on the final day to win her first title of the year in the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Oxford Golf Resort in Pune on Friday. 

The Kapurthala golfer shot a 4-under 68 for the second time in three days for a total of 5-under 211 and stay five shots ahead of Amandeep Drall (72), who finished second with an overall card of par 216.

Tvesa Malik (72) was third at 3-over 219, while Neha Tripathi (72), winner of the first leg, was fourth at 5-over 221. Sifat Alag (77) finished fifth. 

Gursimar, who led by five shots after the first day, allowed her lead to shrink to just one after the second day. However, on the final day, she made birdies on the first and the third, even as her playing partner and nearest rival, Amandeep bogeyed the first hole. 

Gursimar stayed focused and shot a 2-under 34 for the front nine, as Amandeep carded 37 to allow the gap to swell from one shot to four. 

Tvesa, who was four adrift 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 the 10th, 11th and the 14th. She, though, dropped a shot on the par-4 12th to finish the back nine at 2-under 34. 

When Gursimar birdied the par-3 14th, she was sitting on a six-shot lead and 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 the par-5 16th to finish second. 

Tvesa, who had birdies on the ninth and 10th and bogeys on the eighth and 18th was third. 

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 tied-8th at 233. 

Despite finishing fourth, Neha stayed on top of the Hero Order of Merit with earnings of Rs 2,16,000, followed by Amandeep who has Rs 1,76,000. 

Gursimar trails Amandeep by a mere Rs 1,600, and at Rs.1,74,400, Afshan Fatima is fourth. 

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