Bengaluru: Neha Tripathi shot a stunning five-under 67, that carried her to the top of the leaderboard in the ninth leg of the Womens Professional Golf Tour here on Thursday.
At the end of two rounds, Neha was three-under 141. She earlier won the first leg of this season in Ahmedabad, but has not tasted victory since, and was two shots clear of the consistent Gaurika Bishnoi (69) at the Prestige Golfshire here.
On a day when there were numerous under-par scores, Vani Kapoor recovered lost ground with a two-under 70 that hauled her up from T-11th to Tied-5th at 147. Also moving up significantly was Amandeep Drall (71) who is tied seventh, up from overnight 14th at 149.
Amateur Ridhima Dilawari shot a creditable round of 71 that brought her to even par 144 and third place, while overnight leader, Gursimar Badwal slipped with a card of 75 and was fourth at 146.
Vani shared the fifth place with amateur Pranavi Urs (73). Amandeep Drall was Tied-7th with Siddhi Kapoor (74) and Mehar Atwal (76) dropped to ninth at 150.
Neha, starting the day in tied-third, had a dream run as she cruised through the front nine in two-under with birdies on fourth and sixth holes.
On the back nine she was on a roll with four birdies in a row from 10th to 13th at which point she was six-under. Four straight pars brought her to the 18th at six-under, but she dropped her only bogey of the day at the closing hole for 67.
Gaurika Bishnoi stayed bogey-free for the entire day and had three birdies on back nine on 10th, 13th and 17th holes.
She is having a great season, as she leads the Order of Merit and has won once, finished second three times and twice she was third. She has never been outside Top-10 in eight starts.
The final round will see Neha go out in the final with Gaurika and Ridhima while Pranavi, Vani and Gursimar will play in the second to last group. (IANS)
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