Gursimar wins Women’s Pro Golf Tour to end title drought, Mane maintains joint lead at Bengal Open

Gursimar Badwal ended a 14-month title drought with a superb three-under 69 that saw her complete a fine rally and win the sixth leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Gurugram on Friday.

Gursimar, whose last win came in the second leg of the 2019 season in Pune, had opened the tournament with a disappointing seven-over 79 and was T-13 after the first day.

She recovered from there with 67-69 in the second and final round to total one-under 215 and emerge a winner by two shots over Saaniya Sharma (67) and Vani Kapoor (72).

Vani may not have been able to win her second title but she did have the consolation of taking over the lead in the Order of Merit after the erstwhile leader, Amandeep Drall had to withdraw from the final round.

Saaniya Sharma made a big charge, including a birdie-birdie finish for a five-under 67. She jumped from Tied-10th to Tied-second place on the final day. Sharing the runner-up spot with Saaniya was Vani Kapoor (73-72-72), who played very consistently on all three days.

Neha Tripathi shot 71, one of the three sub-par scores of the day. She totalled two-over 218 and was fourth.

Overnight co-leader, Asmitha Sathish (74) suffered two double bogeys, one on the Par-4 seventh and another on par-3 17th.

Those errors cost her a chance to make a run for the title. She also had four birdies and two bogeys for a 74 that left her in fifth place.

Gursimar, who started the day only one shot behind the leaders Vani Kapoor and Asmitha Sathish, got off to a great start with birdies on the first two holes and another on fourth.

By then Vani had one birdie and one bogey and Asmitha had one bogey, leaving Gursimar as the sole leader, who then was one-under and the only player under par.

Gursimar played steadily and had pars over the next four holes before adding a fourth birdie on 10th. Her sole bogey of the day was on 11th after which she comfortably coasted through with pars on her last seven holes.

Saaniya Sharma, who like Gursimar had shot 79 on the first day, carded 71 in the second round.

In the final round, Saaniya played flawless golf and was the only player to be bogey free. She birdied third and ninth and added a third on 12th. She also birdied 17thand 18thand finished at one-over 217, which became the clubhouse target for the final group.

Vani Kapoor paid the price for three early bogeys in first six holes, though she also had a birdie. From the seventh to 18th she managed to avoid bogeys and also birdied 14th and 16th and reached one-over. However, Gursimar stayed ahead and cruised to a deserving win.

Pranavi Urs (74) was sixth, while Siddhi Kapoor (74) was seventh and Gaurika Bishnoi (73) was eighth.

Amateur Hunar Mittal, who began with a superb 72 on the first day, and Oviya Reddi (79) rounded off the Top ten.

Mane in joint lead at Bengal Open

Udayan Mane of Pune, searching for a record fourth straight title on the TATA Steel PGTI, was back in familiar territory as he found himself in the joint lead at 10-under-130 at the halfway stage of the Bengal Open Golf Championship being played at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata.

Interestingly, pre-tournament favourite Mane’s (67-63) seven-under-63 on Friday was his 14th consecutive round in the 60s on the PGTI.

Bengaluru’s Khalin Joshi (67-63), Chandigarh’s Aadil Bedi (65-65) and Mhow’s Om Prakash Chouhan (65-65) too enjoyed a share of the second-round lead.

Gurugram’s Digvijay Singh, the first-round leader, slipped to tied fifth at nine-under-131 after recording a 69 on day two. Mukesh Kumar (65) of Mhow and Sri Lankan N Thangaraja (66) also joined Digvijay in tied fifth.

Noida’s Dipankar Kaushal shot the best round of the day, a flawless eight-under-62, to be placed eighth at eight-under-132.

The cut was declared at even-par-140. Fifty-six professionals progressed to the weekend rounds.

Udayan Mane started his round with a 15-feet eagle conversion on the 10th and backed that up with consecutive birdies on the 12th, 13th and 14th where he sank two putts from a range of 18 to 20 feet. A missed chip-putt on the 18th resulted in Mane’s only bogey of the day.

Udayan, however, kept up the intensity on the front-nine by picking up three more birdies thanks to two conversions from a range of 12 to 15 feet.

Like Udayan, Khalin Joshi too began his round with an eagle on the 10th where he drained an eight-footer. Khalin then collected four more birdies on the back-nine in exchange for two bogeys. Joshi went on to add an additional three birdies to his card on the front-nine.

Joshi said, “I made a number of putts from a range of 10 to 12 feet today and holed more putts than I did in the first round. That was the big difference. However, I was also disappointed to miss out on three birdie putts within five feet.”

Aadil Bedi, playing his first PGTI event of the season, mixed six birdies with a bogey during his round of 65. Bedi landed his drives near the green on the 14th and 15th to set up chip-putt birdies.

Om Prakash Chouhan was seven-under for the day through the first 13 holes before he stumbled with three bogeys on the 14th, 15th and 17th where he struggled with his approach shots and missed chip-putts. Om Prakash, however, did manage to extract a birdie on the 16th.

Dipankar Kaushal’s sensational effort saw him land a lot of shots within five feet of the pin. Dipankar’s round lifted him 34 spots from his overnight tied 42nd.

Chikkarangappa S was placed ninth at seven-under-133.

Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa, Bengaluru’s Rahil Gangjee and defending champion Md Zamal Hossain Mollah of Bangladesh were among the five players bunched in tied 10th at six-under-134.