Hot on her heels with another fine sub-par round of one under 71 was Gaurika Bishnoi, while amateur Pranavi Urs, who has been shaping up well, shot an even par 72 to be sole third.
The highlight of the first day, however, was a stunning hole in one by Millie Saroha on the Par-3 17th, which played to 135 yards.
Ironically, Mille had dropped five shots in the previous four holes and was going through a wretched run, before the ace lit up her day.
This was the first hole-in-one of the season. Millie however finished at 78, way down in T-11th position.
Neha had a fine start with three birdies against just one bogey in her first seven holes, but then cooled off with one bogey and just one birdie on the Par-3 17th for a day's work of 70.
Gaurika is slowly running into the kind of form that made her the player to watch last season.
She had a very nice run of three consecutive birdies after the turn from 10th to 12th but before that she had dropped three bogeys in four holes from sixth to ninth. In all she had five birdies, the most in the field in the first round. She also had four bogeys.
Amateurs Pranavi Urs and Rhea Saravanan occupied the third and fourth spots with rounds of 72 and 73.
Pranavi had two each of birdies and bogeys, while Rhea had three bogeys and one birdie on the front nine but was flawless on the back stretch with one birdie and no bogeys.
Amandeep Drall was four-over through 12 and then recovered with two birdies and ended at 2-over 74 in fifth place, while Trisha Sunil and Tvesa Malik shot 75 each. Trisha was unlucky with a triple bogey eight on Par-5 13th, but for which she may have been in the top-3.
Suchitra Ramesh (76) was eighth, while Sonam Chugh and Gursimar Badwal carded 77 each to be tied ninth.
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
