Gaurika Bishnoi cards 73 to grab lead at Kolkata

Gurgaon golfer Gaurika Bishnoi carded one-over 73 to grab the lead after the first round of the 3rd leg of Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour at The Royal Calcutta Golf Club here today.
Trailing her in second position with identical scores of two-over 74 are Smriti Mehra and Neha Tripathi. The Rs 6,00,000 event will culminate on 17th February.
Gaurika had an indifferent start, carding a double bogey on the very first hole. She went on to drop shots on the 6th, 7th and 9th holes, while carding birdies on the 2nd and 4th in her front nine.
Still looking for her first win on the Tour, she bettered her game as the day progressed and carded birdies on the 11th, 12th and 14th holes, while dropping just one shot on the 15th in her back nine.

Smriti would have hoped for a better start, as she carded a bogey on the first hole. She was erratic in her front nine, with birdies on the 4th and 6th neutralised by bogeys on the 5th, 7th and 9th holes.
She came up with an even par back nine, with a bogey and a birdie apiece on the 14th and 15th holes respectively. Neha had a good start, carding a birdie on the first hole.
However, she could not sustain the momentum, carding bogeys on the 2nd, 6th and 9th, with a birdie on the 3rd in her front nine. On the return, bogeys on the 13th and 16th holes with a lone birdie on the 15th meant that she had to be content with a score of two over 74.

Gursimar Badwal, Trisha Sunil and Saaniya Sharma were all tied fourth with identical scores of four over 76. New Delhi's Mehar Atwal and Hero MotoCorp sponsored Sharmila Nicollet were tied seventh with identical scores of five over 77, followed by Kolkata's Siddhi Kapoor in 9th position with a score of seven over 79.