Vani tunes up for Women’s Indian Open with comfortable win

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Gurugram, October 26: Vani Kapoor cut out the errors and played steady golf to turn in a fine card of one-under 71 that gave her a comfortable three-shot win in the 14th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour. She totalled four-over 220 and finished three clear of Gursimar Badwal (74), while amateur Pranavi Urs (74) was third a stroke further behind.

The DLF Golf and Country Club is the home course for Vani, who also trains here with her coach, Anitya Chand, who was at hand to congratulate his ward. “It’s a big relief to win at the DLF, which is my home course and I have always wanted to do well here,” said Vani. “With the Hero Women’s Indian coming up at this course in two weeks, the final round and the title win was a good boost.”

Vani birdied second, ninth, 13th and 17th but dropped shots on fourth, sixth and 16th. “This is a challenging course and it is set up well and was a good test ahead of the Indian Open,” she added. “I am off to Abu Dhabi for the Ladies European Tour event and will then be back for the Indian Open. With more events coming up on LET this is a busy time for us.” This was the fourth win in six starts for Vani Kapoor on the domestic Tour.

Gursimar, who has two wins this year, started birdie-birdie and looked like challenging Vani for the title. But a bogey on fourth and a double on sixth derailed her ambitions. She also bogeyed 10th, 12th and 17th and birdied 13th and 15th, but Vani had moved clear by then.

Pranavi had a rough time on front nine with three bogeys and no birdies but she had one birdie and no bogeys on the back nine for her 74 and a total of 224, one behind Gursimar.

Jaipur’s Afshan Fatima (73), whose training is facilitated by the Women’s Golf Association of India, had a superb card of 73 which had four birdies and five bogeys. She was Tied-4th with Saaniya Sharma (75) at 226.

Amandeep Drall (76) and Tvesa Malik (78) were Tied-6th, while Neha Tripathi (79) was eighth and Smriti Mehra (80) was ninth.

Gaurika Bishnoi managed to cling to the top spot on the Hero Order of Merit and became the first player to cross Rs. 10 lakhs in earnings this season.

Amandeep Drall is second on the Money List and Gursimar is third, while Saaniya and Neha are fourth and fifth. Smriti Mehra and Vani, who has played only six events, are sixth and seventh respectively.