Gaurika sets early pace

In-form Gaurika Bishnoi wavered from the brilliant to the ordinary to set the pace in the eighth leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour 2017 here on Thursday.

The Gurugram golfer, who turns 19 next month, shot a fluctuating two-under 71 to sneak one shot ahead of favourite Vani Kapoor at the Clover Greens in Hosur.

Talented Amandeep Drall, last week winner Tvesa Malik and amateur Ankita Kedlaya share the third spot after shooting matching 71s.

Gaurika, who has triumphed once and scored two second-place finishes this season to lead the Order of Merit List, started off in a blaze, birdieing the opening three holes.

She then courted disaster, dropping a double-bogey 6 on the fifth and bogeying the sixth.

Gaurika, however, bounced back quickly, picking up shots on the seventh, eighth and 10th holes, sandwiched with a bogey on the ninth. She then chose the play safe in the inward journey, picking a birdie on the 16th before dropping a bogey on the 18th.

DH News Service

Leading scores (after 18 holes, ‘A’ denotes amateur): 69: Gaurika Bishnoi; 70: Vani Kapoor; 71: Ankita Kedlaya (A), Amandeep Drall, Tvesa Malik; 72: Neha Tripathi; 75: Anisha Padukone, Saaniya Sharma, Smriti Mehra.