Golfer Neha grabs 3-shot lead in 15th leg of Hero WPT

Lucknow, Nov 22 (IANS) Golfer Neha Tripathi shot two-under 68 to grab a handy three-shot lead at the end of the first round of the 15th leg of Hero Womens Pro Tour at the Palms Golf Club and Resort here on Wednesday.

Neha was three shots ahead of Afshan Fatima and Gaurika Bishnoi, who carded rounds of one-over 71 each.

Winner of two titles, Amandeep Drall was lying sole fourth with a round of two-over 72 while veteran Smriti Mehra and Ayesha Kapur were tied-5th at 73. Mehar Atwal (74) was seventh with Gursimar Badwal (75), Tvesa Malik (76) and Siddhi Kapoor (77) behind her in that order.

The highlight of the day was an eagle each by Neha and Afshan. Neha birdied second and fourth and played pars till running into a bogey on 11th and 13th. She reached the green on the par-4 17th hole, putted out for a two and closed with a par on 18th.

Afshan eagled the even shorter par-4 fourth hole. Towards the end she had birdies on 16th and 17th at which point she was one-under for the round. A double bogey on 18th saw her finish at 71.

Many of the players took advantage of the two short par-4s on fourth and 17th holes.

Saaniya Sharma, the lone Indian to make the cut at last week's Sanya Ladies Open in China, had a disaster on the par-5 16th. She had a rough start where she bogeyed third, double bogeyed the short fourth and bogeyed the sixth as well.

But then she steadied herself till she came to the par-5 16th, where she shot a 10 and she finished at nine-over 79 alongside amateur Gurjot Badwal.

In the second round, Neha will play with Afshan and the Order of Merit leader Gaurika, while Smriti will go out with Ayesha and Amandeep.

Tvesa, Gursimar and Mehar play together and in the first group of the second day, Saaniya will play alongside Gurjot Badwal and Siddhi Kapoor.

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