Amateur Mehar Atwal surges ahead on Day 1

Delhi amateur Mehar Atwal carded the day's only under par score of two under 70 to finish on top of the leaderboard at the end of day one in the seventh leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour 2014 at the Royal Springs Golf Course here.
On a difficult day, with strong winds blowing on the course, Mehar held on to her nerves to play a near perfect round.
Trailing the amateur golfer by a couple of shots is Kolkata's Neha Tripathi, while Delhi girls Ankita Tiwana and in-form Vani Kapoor along with Pune's Shweta Galande finished with identical scores of one over 73 to be placed tied third after 18 holes.

Mehar sank three birdies on her front nine on the 5th, 8th and 9th holes, faltering with just one bogey on the 6th hole. Her return journey, though a little rocky, was still steady enough for her to finish at the top with three birdies on the 11th, 12th and 16th holes, and an equal number of bogeys on the 13th, 14th and 17th holes.
Neha Tripathi played an extremely calculated round to finish second after 18 holes. Her even par round of 72 consisted of two birdies on the 5th and 17th holes, and two bogeys on the 8th and 13th holes.

Current Hero Order of Merit Leader and winner of leg 6, Vani struggled today. She started her campaign cautiously with a birdie on the first hole, and faltered just once in the front nine with a bogey on the 7th hole.
Her back nine, however was troublesome as she went on to card a bogey on the 11th hole and a double bogey on the 15th hole. She ended the day with two consecutive life saving birdies on the 16th and 17th holes, which helped her finish tied third in the first round.
Ankita Tiwana had a bad start as she began her campaign with two consecutive bogeys on the first two holes. Thereafter she raised her game to card three birdies on the 4th, 7th and 9th holes, followed by two more bogeys on the 8th and 18th holes.