Vani hits the front, Sharmila placed second

 Vani Kapoor shot a five-under 66 to grab an early lead on day one of the 14th leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour on Wednesday.

Bengaluru’s Sharmila Nicollet was trailing the Delhi youngster by two strokes in second position at the Rs 500,000 event at the Clover Greens.

Vani, gunning for her fifth title of the season, began with a bang, carding three birdies in her front nine on the first, second and fourth holes, while dropping a shot on the ninth.
The Hero Order of Merit leader kept the momentum going in the second half as well, carding four birdies on the 11th, 14th, 15th and 17th holes, along with a bogey on the 16th. Her tally of seven birdies was maximum by any player on the day.

Sharmila was in good touch and fired a blemish-free round of three-under 68. Her round consisted of three birdies on the first, seventh and ninth holes, helping her to take the second position.

Rookie Amandeep Drall returned with a score of one under 70 to finish third at the end of the day’s play. The Panchkula golfer carded two birdies in her front nine on the fourth and fifth holes, along with an equal number of bogies on the third and ninth holes. She played a bogey-free back nine with a lone birdie on the 12th hole.

Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi carded four birdies on the first, ninth, 13th and 15th holes but bogies on the third, sixth, seventh and 16th holes meant she had to finish the day placed fourth on the leaderboard with a level par score.

Top scores (after 18 holes): 66: Vani Kapoor; 68: Sharmila Nicollet; 70: Amandeep Drall; 71: Neha Tripathi; 74: Gursimar Badwal; 75: Ankita Tiwana, Gauri Monga, Shweta Galande; 77: Afshan Fatima.