Harpal Singh Bedi
Vani Kapoor kept her nerves as she carded two-under 70 to emerge joint leader with Amandeep Drall at the end of the two rounds in the fifth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Jaypee Greens on Thursday.
Vani has been trying to re-capture the form that made her India’s top star on the domestic circuit , and showed signs of recovery with a second place finish in the fourth leg. On Thursday, she carded two bogeys, like she did in the first round.
The difference this time was that she also had four birdies on sixth, eighth, 11th and 15th. She dropped shots on the Par-5 13th and Par-4 17th.
Amandeep Drall had just one birdie against three bogeys on the front nine and added just one more birdie on the back nine for a 73. Amandeep and Vani are now two-under 142 and two shots clear of Gaurika Bishnoi, who also showed good form after a lean period in between. She shot 71 with three birdies on the front nine and two bogeys on the back nine. She is even par 144 after two rounds.
Pranavi Urs looked set for a better position, as she was one-under after 11 holes before dropping strokes . She bogeyed four of the last six holes with the bogeys coming on 13th and 14th and again on 17th and 18th as she tumbled to three-over 75 and a total of two-over 146.
Ridhima Dilawari (74) was sole fifth at 147, while Oviya Reddi (74) and Neha Tripathi (76) were Tied-sixth. Amateurs Asmitha Sathish (75), Hunar Mittal (78) and Gursimar Badwal (77) were Tied-eighth at 151.
With three players inside two shots and four inside four shots, the stage is set for a close tussle in the final round.