6th leg of women's golf: Jahanvi grabs initial lead

Jaipur, March 17 The Bakshi sisters, who have been in the limelight at the Women's Pro Golf Tour for the last few weeks, continued their excellent run on Wednesday as they occupied the top two spots at the end of the first round of the sixth leg of the Women's Pro Golf Tour here.

Playing in windy conditions at the par 70 course, last week's winner Jahanvi Bakshi continued from where she left off last week and was steady with two birdies against one bogey for a card of one-under 69, while her younger sister Hitaashee shot one-over 71 to be tied second alongside Tvesa Malik and Amandeep Drall.

Gauri Karhade was tied fifth with Ridhima Dilawari at 72 as the back nine bit the players hard.

Shweta Mansingh (74) was seventh, while six players including Seher Atwal, Vani Kapoor, amateur Avani Prashanth, Ananya Datar, Neha Tripathi and amateur Nishna Patel were tied-eighth.

Jahanvi, who broke through for her maiden win last week, started from the more challenging back nine and began with five pars and a bogey to turn in one-over. On the second nine, she avoided any more errors and birdied second and sixth for a day's work of 69.

Hitaashee, finishing 10 minutes before her sister, had four bogeys and just one birdie on her first nine, the back side of the course, but made up with birdies on sixth and eighth.

Ten minutes later Hitaashee was joined by Tvesa Malik who had two birdies but gave away those gains with a triple bogey on the Par-3 sixth. Amandeep Drall, starting from 10th around the same time, had just one birdie on second and later bogeyed 11th and 18th.

Vani, one of the first to start, had three bogeys in the first three holes and ended bogey-bogey. In between, her 2 birdies were cancelled out by 2 more bogeys and she ended a rough day with 75. Seher suffered a triple bogey on the Par-5 eighth for her 75.

Once again Avani Prashanth (75), already a winner this season, was the leading amateur.

( With inputs from IANS )