Golf: Amateur Mannat Brar holds first round lead at the 12th leg of WPGT

Hosur, Aug 27 (IANS) Amateur Mannat Brar struck a purple patch in the middle of the opening round with four birdies in a row and captured the first round lead in the 12th Leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Clover Greens. Playing in the Rs.15 lakhs purse event, Mannat shot 2-under 70 for the only under par round of the day.

Mannat, who was Tied-eighth last week in the 11th Leg at Prestige Golfshire, was two shots clear of the trio comprising Kriti Chowhan, Jasmine Shekar and Ananya Garg, all of whom shot even par 72.

Mannat opened with a birdie and then dropped shots on the fourth and the sixth to go to 1-over. She then produced four birdies in a row from the ninth to 12th. The birdie run stopped as she had five pars in a row, but unfortunately closed with a bogey at the tricky Par-3 18th.

Kriti, looking for her maiden win on the Hero WPG Tour, birdied the second and the third, but gave back both those shots on the seventh and the eighth. She parred her last 10 holes for her 72.

Jasmine, a multiple winner on the Tour, had an early birdie on the fifth, and then three in a row from the 11th to the 13th. She bogeyed the eighth, ninth, 14th and the 16th for a par score.

Ananya, also in the hunt for her first pro title, had three birdies against three bogeys.

Another amateur Aaradhya Shetty and pro Rhea Jha carded 1-over 73 each to occupy the fifth place.

Last week’s runner-up amateur Lavanya Gupta, who is due to attend college in the US soon, and four others, amateur Diya C Patil, Karishma Govind, Ravjot K Dosanjh and Ananya Datar were tied for seventh place with scores of 2-over 74 each. Lavanya had a good start with birdies on the second and the third but was unable to keep the momentum going. Overall, she had three birdies against five bogeys.

Among the well-known names having a tough time on the first day were Ladies European Tour players Amandeep Drall (75) and Seher Atwal (75) at Tied-12th, Sneha Singh (76) at 18th, Ridhima Dilawari (77) at T-19 and Rhea Purvi Saravanan (79) at T-23.

The 12th leg is one of the last few events ahead of the Hero Women’s Indian Open in October. It will also decide which players make the grade for the international event.

--IANS

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