Gursimar cruises to 5-shot win

Gursimar Badwal gave her rivals no chance on the final day to clinch her first title of the year in the second leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour here on Friday.

Gursimar shot four-under 68 for the second time in three days to total five-under 211 and win by five shots over Amandeep Drall (72), who ended at even par 216, at the Oxford Golf Resort.

Tvesa Malik (72) was third at three-over 219, while Neha Tripathi (72), winner of the first leg, was fourth at five-over 221. Sifat Alag (77) was fifth.

Gursimar, who led by five shots after the first day, had allowed that lead to shrink to just one after the second day.

 

However, on the final day on Friday, she made birdies on the first and the third, even as her playing partner and nearest rival, Amandeep Drall bogeyed the first hole.

Gursimar stayed focused and shot two-under 34 for the front nine, as Amandeep carded 37 to allow the gap to swell from one shot to four.

Tvesa Malik, who was four behind after 36 holes, fell another two behind as she was even par for the front nine.

Gursimar pulled away even more decisively on the back nine as she birdied 10th, 11th and 14th, but also dropped a shot on Par-4 12th. Once again, she had the best back nine score of two-under 34.

When she birdied the par-3 14th, Gursimar was sitting on a six-shot lead and she made no mistakes in the last four holes. Amandeep had too much to do in too few holes and managed only one more birdie on par-5 16th to finish second.

Tvesa, who had two birdies on ninth and 10th and bogeys on eighth and 18th, was third and missed some birdie chances.

Behind Neha and Sifat, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, were Gaurika Bishnoi (75) at sixth and Ananya Datar (77) at seventh. Siddhi Kapoor (75), Afshan Fatima (79) and Millie Saroha (80) were all Tied-8th at 233.