Hitaashee takes sole lead at halfway stage of Women's Indian Open

Gurugram, Oct 10 (PTI) India's Hitaashee Bakshi teed off early in the morning just as the sun was rising and brought home a solid bogey-free 5-under 67 in the second round to vault to the top of the leaderboard at the USD 500,000 Women's Indian Open on Friday.

Hitaashee's 67, alongside her first round 70, took her to 7-under and sole lead at the halfway stage here at DLF Golf and Country Club. It was the first time Hitaashee was holding the lead in a Ladies European Tour event.

Right behind Hitaashee on the leaderboard, which had a distinct Indian touch, was teenager amateur, Zara Anand (68-70) in tied second place with Germany's Verena Gimmy (68-70).

Pranavi Urs (72-67), produced a back-nine surge to shoot a 67 and was tied fourth with the 2024 Order of Merit leader Chiara Tamburlini (71-68) at a 5-under total of 139. In fact, both the day's best scores of 67 came from two Indians - Hitaashee and Pranavi.

Not too far behind was the first-round leader, Vani Kapoor (67-74), who despite things not going her way, hung in for a 74 to be 3-under in tied seventh place with last year's joint runner-up Singaporean Shannon Tan (68-73) and England's Alice Hewson (69-72) at a 3-under total of 141.

Sweden's Lisa Pettersson (71-69) was sole sixth.

With four Indians in the Top-10, hopes of an Indian win after a nine-year gap are rather high.

Indian golfers held the spotlight right through the day as Hitaashee lit up the morning session, then it was Zara Anand and Pranavi Urs' turn to shine through in the fading evening light.

Zara at one time even shared the lead with Hitaashee, before a double-bogey on the 17th pulled her back. Creditably, she didn't let that setback affect her as she closed her round with a birdie on the 18th to claw back to the 2nd place on the leaderboard.

A dozen Indians made the cut including Avani Prashanth (73-71) and Amandeep Drall (74-70) at tied 14th, Durga Nittur (70-75) at tied -18th, Ridhima Dilawari (75-72) at tied 28th, Jahanvi Bakshi (75-73), the elder sister of Hitaashee, and Jasmine Shekar (75-73) at tied 31st, Tvesa Malik (74-75) at tied 39th and Diksha Dagar (78-72) at tied 46th.

A total of 70 players made the cut which was applied at eight-over. Some of the well-known names missing the cut were Gaurika Bishnoi, Sneha Singh and amateurs Mannat Brar and Saanvi Somu.

Hitaashee, who will be joined in the final two rounds by her sister, Jahanvi, was thrilled to hold the lead in an LET event for the first time.

She said, "I am feeling good, this is my home course. My expectations are where it should be and I'm really happy with that.

"Today, I teed off at 6.40 am and that is exactly the time I usually play here at this course. So I just felt so normal to me that even if there was dew on the course, even if it was wet, I was like, I have played it so many times, that's just a normal round of golf for me." Long after Hitaashee was gone after her morning fireworks, teenager Zara Anand came back with a smile and a second round card of 70 despite a late double bogey.

She said, "I don't really think there is a code to DLF, every day is different, every hole is different, but the more I play here, the more comfortable I get on the greens and on the shots so I think that's good and I'm just looking forward to the weekend." Commenting on her own fortunes and probably those of many others, Zara went on, "Quite a roller coaster finish for me. I had a great putt on 16 and I think I got a little bit unlucky on 17 and then again another great putt and a great shot on 18. So, that was great. Got my heart rate up a little bit." Zara was tied second with German Verena Gimmy (68-70), who is enjoying herself on her first visit to India.

Pranavi Urs, coming back from a wrist injury and a top five finish in France, equalled this week's best of 67 – shot by Vani Kapoor on Day 1 and by Hitaashee this morning – to jump 42 places at the Tied-fourth position with Chiara Tamburlini.

Pranavi's only bogey came on the second, when she went into the rough. PTI AH AH AT AT