Gauri shoots into contention at her home course

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 29: The 20-year-old Indian amateur, Gauri Monga, showed that she is a golfer to watch out for as she shot a two-under 70 in the second round to finish tied fourth at the Hero Women’s Indian Open 2013 here on Friday.

Gauri, who shot one-over 73 in the first round at her home course – the Delhi Golf Club (DGC), totaled one-under 143 after the penultimate round. Gauri is now three strokes behind the sole leader, Thidapa Suwannapura of Thailand.

Other than Gauri’s brilliant show, the tournament turned out to be a modest outing for many other Indians. The cut was declared at nine-over 155 and 10 out of 19 Indians made the cut.

Among the prominent names who survived the cut, were Hero Moto Corp-sponsored golfer Sharmila Nicollet (75, 78), veteran Smriti Mehra (77, 73), Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour’s Order of merit (2013) winner Neha Tripathi (74, 75) and Vani Kapoor (73, 78). A host of amateurs like Aditi Ashok (76, 77), Gurbani Singh (78, 75), Gursimar Badhwal (77, 75) and Ridhima Dilawari (77, 74) showed that the future of Indian golf is in safe hands as they also survived the cut. Ankita Tiwana, Shweta Galande and Pallavi Jain missed the cut. After Gauri, the best Indians are Neha at tied 30th, Smriti at 41st, Vani and Rhea Nair at 49th while Sharmila is lying in 61st place with Gurbani and Aditi.

Gauri was elated to be in top-5 at a club where she cut her golfing teeth. “It’s good to shoot such a good round at your home course. My mother and maternal aunt were on the course and it was really encouraging to have them around,” said Gauri.

Gauri had an eagle chance on the second hole, but her shot lipped out and she settled for a birdie. A good start was spoilt by back-to-back birdies on fifth and sixth, where she hit the bunker. However, she made a superb comeback and holed a putt from 10 feet for a birdie on 11th. She shot into contention withmore birdie on 13th, where she holed a 12-footer.

She said that good approach shots left her with smaller putts. “The best part of my game were my approach shots. I really had a good iron play and then sank the putts easily,” said Gauri.

The Delhi girl wants to continue her momentum in the final round.

“It will be great to finish on a high where I started playing golf. It’s such a big platform and a good performance will be noticed everywhere,” she said.

Indians’ score sheet

149- Neha Tripathi (74, 75)
150- Smriti Mehra (77, 73)
151- Ridhima Dilawari (A) (77, 74), Vani Kapoor (73, 78), Rhea Nair (77, 74),
152- Gursimar Badhwal (A) (77, 75)
153- Aditi Ashok (A) (76, 77), Sharmila Nicollet (75, 78), Gurbani Singh (78, 75)
155- Millie Saroha (A) (77, 78),
156- Saaniya Sharma (81, 75),
157- Preetinder Kaur (78, 79)
161- Seher Atwal (A) (80, 81), Shweta Galande (84, 77)
163- Ankita Tiwana (77, 86)
165- Niki Pnappa (79, 86)
168- Pallavi Jain (82, 86)