Tvesa Malik is the best placed Indian at tied 11th spot even as Becky Morgan, Nicole Broch Larsen and Eleanor Given emerged as new joint leaders at the women’s Indian Open in Gurugram on Saturday, PTI reported.
Overnight leader Christine Wolf dropped down to tied fourth spot after hitting a quadruple bogey on the closing 18th hole. The closing stretch at the Gary Player course took a heavy toll on Wolf, as Norway’s Tonje Daffinrud (76) and Thailand’s Pannarat Thanapolbooyaras (78), playing in the lead group with Wolf (77), also fell by the wayside dropping to tied 19th and tied 22nd respectively.
Wolf, a comfortable leader a day earlier, now trails the leading trio of Morgan (68), Broch Larsen (69) and Givens (70) by one shot. The leaders are at four-under 212 and Wolf is at three-under 213.
Malik continued to be the best placed Indian. The 22-year-old golfer, for whom the DLF is the home course, shot one-over 73 with a satisfying birdie on the 18th. She seemed to be doing well at one-under through 12 holes, which saw her play a steady bogey-free front nine at one-under 35.
Malik bogeyed the 10th, but got the shot back on 11th to stay in top 10, but the double spoilt her card, before she got back a birdie on 18th. Malik is now even par 216 for three days and tied11th with seven others, including Isabelle Boineau (65), who shot the week’s best card of 65, an improvement of 10 shots to her previous round.
“It was nice to finish the day with a birdie. It left me something to look forward to tomorrow. I need to get a few more birdies and not have three-putts,” Malik said. “This is a course where nothing is sure till the ball falls into the cup. Anything can happen and big numbers can crop up suddenly. We have already seen that over last three days. Also one cannot miss on the wrong side, as I did on 13th and ended with a double,” she added.
Of the other Indians, Gaurika Bishnoi (72) endured a round with five birdies and five bogeys to be one-over for three rounds and was tied 19th with Ridhima Dilawari (71). Vani Kapoor and Astha Madan shot identical cards of two-under 70 and rose to tied 31st at four-over 220, while amateurs Diksha Dagar (73), Sifat Sagoo (73) and Pranavi Urs (74) were all at eight-over 224 for tied 51st position.
Overnight leader Wolf was all set to close the third day with another handy lead, before the 18th hole saw her take a quadruple bogey on the Par-5 hole. She found the water twice on the final hole, hitting her second and fifth shots into the lake running down the left side of the fairway.
She dropped from first to a crowded fourth place alongside England’s Felicity Johnson (69) and French star Manon Molle (71). Of the top 10, only Caroline Hedwall, who made good progress with a 69 that made up for her second round 77, has won a title on LET in last two years. Hedwall, the 2011 Hero Women’s Indian Open winner, also won the Open de France last month.
The tournament is wide open with just four shots separating 18 players ahead of Sunday’s action.