Women's Pro Golf Tour: Amateur Vidhatri Urs wins ninth leg

Bengaluru, June 23 (IANS) Amateur Vidhatri Urs shot a solid round of 4-under 68, her third straight round in the 60s, to carve out one of the biggest victories --winning the ninth leg of the Womens Pro Golf Tour at the Prestige Golfshire, here on Friday.

Vidhatri totalled 16-under 200 with rounds of 65-67-68 and won by 13 shots over yet another Bengaluru amateur, Saanvi Somu (71) and rookie pro Jasmine Shekar from Bengaluru, who shot a final round of 70.

Vidhatri's total of 16-under tied the second best total under on the Tour alongside Vani Kapoor at Eagleton in 2016 and Neha Tripathi at Classic Golf and Country Resort in 2018. The best total under par is by Kiran Matharu, who won with a score of 17-under at Classic in 2015.

Sneha Singh (71), who herself won a title last year as an amateur before turning pro, and Neha Tripathi (68), one of the senior pros on the WPG Tour, were tied for fourth with a total of 1-under 215.

Starting the day with a nine-shot lead, Vidhatri's win was never in doubt. It was only a question of how big the margin would be.

Vidhatri birdied third and sixth and turned in two-under and added further gains on the Par-5 13th and Par-5 16th before dropping her only shot of the day on 17th. She closed with a flourish with a birdie on 18th. Her card of 68 was one of the three 68s recorded on the final day.

Jasmine Shekar playing in the second last group birdied the third but dropped shots on fourth and ninth. On the back nine she picked three birdies in a row from 13th to 15th and parred the rest for a 70.

Playing in the final group alongside Vidhatri and Kriti Chowhan (78), Saanvi, also from Karnataka like Vidhatri and Jasmine, bogeyed third and fourth. She bounced back after that with a birdie on the fifth and then had seven pars before she birdied the 13th, 14th and the 16th. She dropped a shot on 17th which saw her drop from sole second to tied second with Jasmine. A week ago, Saanvi was tenth at Clover Greens.

Neha had five birdies against one bogey and was tied fourth with Sneha who had three birdies and two bogeys on ninth and tenth holes.

Sachika Singh (74) was sixth, while last week's runner-up Keerthana Rajeev (68) was tied seventh with Shweta Mansingh (71) and Jyotsana Singh (72). Khushi Khanijau (71) was tenth.

Vidhatri is the first amateur winner this season, though Keerthana Rajeev finished second last week. It has been a good two weeks for amateurs, as the ninth leg which finished today had three amateurs in the Top-7. Last week, too, there were three amateurs in the Top-7 with Keerthana Rajeev in second place and Ayushi Dutta and Anvitha Narender in tied seventh spot.

Interestingly, the last amateur to win on the Tour, Avani Prashanth, had also secured a 13-shot win in the final leg of the 2022 season at Chandigarh. Last year Sneha and Avani were two amateur winners on the Tour. While Avani is likely to turn pro later this season,

Sneha has already turned pro and won twice this season. Sneha's tied fourth place saw her climb to the top of the Hero Order of Merit, displacing Seher Atwal, who slipped to Tied 14th with a final round of 79.