Pro Golf Tour: Anvitha Narender, who turned pro only last week, and Sneha Singh, the 2023 Order of Merit leader, were among the four co-leaders at the end of the first day of the eighth leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Bangalore Golf Club. Anvitha and Sneha shared the lead with Rhea Jha and amateur Lavanya Jadon with 1-under 69 each.They were followed by Seher Atwal who shot even par while three others, amateur Saanvi Somu, Gaurabi Bhowmick and Snigdha Goswami carded 1-over 71 each on a crowded leaderboard. Vidhatri Urs, third on her pro debut last week, was among three players at T-9 with 2-over 72. The other two were Disha Kavery and Rhea Purvi Saravanan.
A week after new pro Vidhatri had taken the first-round lead in the seventh leg, Anvitha, also playing only her second event as a pro, found herself in the lead bunch after 18 holes.
Anvitha had a birdie on the ninth and a bogey on the 10th and then birdied 16 and 18 with a dropped shot in between on the 17th spot. Rhea Jha had four birdies, including two on the 16th and the 17th, but also had three bogeys, while Sneha had six birdies, including two on the first two holes and five bogeys, two of them on the two closing holes for her 69.
Lavanya Jadon, who has been showing a lot of promise on the amateur circuit, dropped a double bogey on the second and a bogey on the fourth to be 3-over after four holes. She staged a fine comeback with five birdies to get to 2-under before a late bogey on the tough Par-5 17th pulled her back to 1-under.
Seher had three each of birdies and bogeys and was just one behind the leading quartet.
Last week’s winner Gaurika Bishnoi, who had two birdies on the front nine, dropped two double bogeys on the 12th and the 14th and closed with a bogey on the 18th for a 3-over 73.
Hitaashee Bakshi, dashing in from the Singapore Ladies Masters where she was third on Sunday, had a rough day. Arriving late for a practice round on Monday, she had seven pars, to begin with as she missed a few makeable birdie putts.
Then she went out of bounds on the Par-5 eighth and had a triple bogey followed by a bogey. Two more bogeys on the 17th and the 18th meant she was six-over and without a birdie on the card. She was T-22nd.
