Harpal Singh Bedi
Pranavi Urs carded 2-over 71 and with an aggregate par 138 for 36 holes, extended lead to three shots over nearest rival Sehar Atwal at the end of the second round of the 9th leg of the Hero WPGT at the Bangalore Golf Club on Thursday.
Seher Atwal’s bid to catch up and overhaul overnight leader Pranavi Urs unraveled towards the very end of a wet and rainy day The conditions made scoring somewhat difficult.
Seher, who started the day one shot behind Pranavi, caught up with the leader at the turn. Pranavi, playing with Seher, birdied the sixth, as did the latter. Then Pranavi dropped shots on eighth and ninth to be 1-over for the front nine, while Seher was even. That meant both were now level at 2-under through 27 holes at the Par-69 course.
On the back nine, Pranavi was steady with pars from 10th to 16th before dropping a shot on the par-5 17th, but Seher dropped a shot on 11th and then bogeyed 15th and double bogeyed the Par-5 17th to fall three behind the leader. Pranavi carded 2-over 71 to be even par 138 for 36 holes while Seher shot 4-over 73 to get to 3-over 141.
Hitaashee Bakshi (70), with the day’s second-best round, climbed up to sole third, while Nayanika Sanga (69) had the day’s best card and was fourth. Ironically, Nayanika started with a double bogey and bogey on the first two holes but then picked birdies on fourth, sixth and 15th to finish even par.
It turned out to be a tentative round for the newly-minted pro Sneha Singh, who followed up her first round 72 with a 75 and was fifth. Gaurika Bishnoi (76-72) and Ananya Datar (74-74) were tied for sixth as Oviya Reddi (75-74), Afshan Fatima (74-75) and amateur Vidhatri Urs (73-76) were tied for eighth.
On a rain marred day , the Par-4 sixth produced the highest birdies and the Par-5 17th took the highest toll with numerous bogeys.
The cut fell at 157 and 24 players, including four of the five amateurs who started, made it through.