Season's first title for Amandeep

After falling at the final hurdle a few times this season, rookie Amandeep Drall finally secured her maiden win of the season, triumphing in the 12th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Tour here on Friday.

The 22-year-old, despite starting the final round with a bogey, overcame the jitters quickly before dishing out a steady performance in carding one-over 73 to total 217 for a one-shot victory at the Prestige Golfshire.

Order of Merit leader Vani Kapoor, who was in with a chance until the final hole, managed to card 73 to settle for second place while Neha Tripathi shot 74 to sign off third at 221.
Apart from the bogey start on the par-4 first hole, Amandeep was rock-solid throughout a tense final round. Although Vani’s performance kept fluctuating, she still kept breathing down Amandeep’s throat and the rookie showed she has learnt her lessons on how to maintain her composure during tense moments, holing some fine putts for a memorable wire-to-wire win.

In fact, the bogey was the lone blip on her card. She struck the ball well for most of the day and although she didn’t manage to birdie any of the remaining 17 holes, she made sure she didn’t pick up any bogeys to keep herself ahead of the chasing pack.

While Vani, trailing Amandeep by one shot overnight, was handed a share of the lead on the opening itself, she relinquished it on the very next hole after bogeying it. Things took a downturn on the sixth hole where she double-bogeyed.

Vani made up for those blips with birdies on the eighth and 10th but couldn’t find anything more to finish a shot behind Amandeep.

Leading scores (after 54 holes, ‘A’ denotes amateur): 217: Amandeep Drall (70, 74, 73); 218: Vani Kapoor (74, 71, 73); 221: Neha Tripathi (74, 73, 74); 225: Sharmila Nicollet (76, 73, 76), Gursimar Badwal (74, 75, 76), Trisha Sunil (A, 75, 72, 78); 230: Ankita Tiwana (76, 78, 76).