Amandeep Drall upstaged her better known rivals to bag the opening-round honours in the Usha Southern India Ladies golf championship here on Tuesday.
Chandigarh’s Amandeep, who won the two-day strokeplay segment of the All-India Amateur Golf Championship late last year, carded one-over 73 to take a one-shot lead at the Karnataka Golf Association.
Title favourite Gurbani Singh shared the second spot along with Millie Saroha while local lass Aditi Ashok was fourth following a disappointing 75.
Amandeep’s start was anything but good. After dropping a shot on the opening hole, she picked up more bogeys on the third and fourth and seventh holes to go four-over.
However, she didn’t allow the disappointment to get the better of her, making a remarkable comeback to hog the limelight.
She strung together a hat-trick of birdies from the eighth hole before firing a fourth birdie on the par-4 17th.
Leading scores (after 18 holes): Ladies: 73: Amandeep Drall; 74: Gurbani Singh, Millie Saroha; 75: Aditi Ashok.
Category A (15-17 years): 74: Gurbani Singh, Millie Saroha; 76: Raksha Phadke 80: Isha Kapoor.
Category B (13-14 years): 75: Aditi Ashok; 79: Ankita Kedlaya, Gurjot Badwal; 80: Ridhima Dilawari.
Category C (11-12 years): 91: Tanirika Singh, Riya Ahuja; 92: Arshia Mahant; 93: Harnemat Toor Kaur, Drishti Karumbaya.
Category D (below 10 years): 91: Vasundhara Thiara; 93: Tanishka Kumar; 95: Anika Varma; 97: Tiya Chowdary.
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