Amateur Nishna Patel holds nerve to birdie final hole and win first leg of 2024 Hero WPGT
Nishna, who had Hitaashee and Sneha for company in the lead group, began the day with a two-shot lead over Hitaashee and four over Sneha.
Buoyed by a winning start to 2024,, amateur Nishna, will be looking for another good week at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club ,a course she is familiar with as the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour gets underway on Tuesday.
Nishna produced a sterling finish to beat Sneha Singh and Hitaashee Bakshi in the first leg to give herself a big confidence booster.
The field includes Vani Kapoor, who will be looking at assessing her form before she goes and plays a few events on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, where she will be joined by Amandeep Drall, among others. Amandeep is also in the field this week.
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Neha Tripathi, Seher Atwal and Ridhima Dilawari are also hoping to find form and rhythm early in the season before they play more on the international Tours in the next few months.
While Vani and Ridhima did not play last week, Seher Atwal was tied fourth, Amandeep was sixth and Neha just outside the Top-10. Sneha Singh, the Hero Order of Merit winner in 2023, and Hitaashee Bakshi will continue to be the top contenders this week.
The amateurs and seasoned pros apart, there are quite a few young and upcoming stars who would be keen to make an impact. The field consists of 33 professionals and 6 amateurs, playing for a purse of Rs 12 lakhs.
Of the four amateurs in the field this week, the National champion, Vidhatri Urs and Mannat Brar are also due to play the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific early next month, so this should be a good tune up for that. Last week Nishna was the winner and Mannat was Tied-fourth, indicating that amateurs have now become a force to reckon with even on the pro Tour.
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