Pranavi takes handy 3-shot lead after Round 1 in 7th leg of WPGT

Bengaluru (Karnataka)[India], June 9 (ANI): Pranavi Urs, who leads the Order of Merit, opened in style in the seventh leg with a fine 5-under 67 at the Prestige Golfshire and took a three-shot lead over Asmitha Sathish (70). Two amateurs, Vidhatri Urs and Rishika Muralidhar held their own and shot one-under 71 each to be tied third.
Pranavi, who won the first and fourth legs of the WPGT, and finished runner-up at the fifth, is currently leading the Order of Merit and has two wins.
Pranavi began the day with a birdie and added more on the third and fifth. A dropped shot on seventh was the only blemish on the front nine, which she played in 4-under 32 as she birdied eighth and ninth.
Pranavi made it four birdies in a row as she made gains on the 10th and 11th at which point, she was six-under with seven holes to go. Then came an unfortunate double bogey but she steadied herself after that with three pars and one more birdie on the Par-5 16th. She closed with two pars for 67.
Asmitha also opened with a birdie on first but had no more on the front nine and had one bogey for an even par 36. On the back nine she started with birdies on 10th and 11th but dropped a shot on 13th before picking a final birdie on 16th for her 70.
Amateur Rishika had three birdies against two bogeys on front nine and parred the entire back nine. Vidhatri started with a bogey and then birdied 10th and 12th.
Neha Tripathi, who has not tasted victory on the WPGT for some time, opened with 72 which included four birdies and four bogeys, two of which came on 17 and 18. Ridhima had two birdies and two bogeys in her first seven holes and then parred the remaining 11 holes in her card of 72.
Neha and Ridhima were tied for fifth with four others, Ishvari Prasanna, Jahanvi Bakshi, Siddhi Kapoor and Jyotsana Singh. Trimann Saluja, the only player to land an eagle - on Par-5 third - was Tied-11 with Astha Madan.
Some of the other well-known names lying lower included Afshan Fatima (75) at T-14, Seher Atwal (76) at T-17 and Lakmehar Pardesi (77) at T-21. (ANI)