Pornanong surges into top spot on day two

Aditi remains the best Indian at tied 10th

Young Aditi Ashok came short on Saturday after her stunning performance on the opening round as she carded two-over 74 to occupy joint 10th after round two of the Hero Women’s Indian Open golf here.

The 14-year-old Bangalore amateur, who stunned one and all with a terrific three-under 69 for a three-way lead after the first round, remained the best Indian at one-under 143.
She was tied at 10th alongside the likes of ISPS Handa Order of Merit leader Carlota Ciganda (75, 68) and Becky Morgan (70, 73) as five other Indians, three pros and two amateurs, made the cut at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

The best Indian pro was Nalini Singh Siwach (73, 74) at tied 33rd, while Sharmila Nicollet (73, 76) was tied 43rd and Vani Kapoor (75, 75) at tied 47th.

Amateurs Gurbani Singh (76, 73) is at tied 43rd and Millie Saroha (76, 76) was 62nd.
Meanwhile, two-time champion Phatlum Pornanong of Thailand moved into the pole position, while defending champion Swede Caroline Hedwall cracked the course record as the duo revived memories of their 2011 battle here.

At the end of 36 holes, Phatlum, second to Hedwall in 2011, carded seven-under 65 to share the lead with Australian Bree Arthur (67) at seven-under 137.

Hedwall rebounded from opening day’s 76 to bring in a 10-under 62 -- bettering the course record of 65 set by Laura Davies in 2010 -- to get to six-under in sole third place at 136.

Laura Davies (69) recovered from back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th with a great fine shot on the 18th that landed the ball to within 15 feet off the flag.  The cut fell at eight-over 152 and 71 players, including three amateurs, made it to Sunday’s action.


Leading scores (after 36 holes, ‘A’ denotes amateur): 137: Pornanong Phatlum (Tha, 72, 65), Bree Arthur (Aus, 70, 67); 138: Caroline Hedwall (Fin, 76, 62); 140: Laura Davies (Eng, 71, 69); 141: Florentyna Parker (Eng, 70, 71), Nontaya Srisawang (Tha, 71, 70), Elizabeth Barnett (Eng, 72, 69); 142: Kiran Matharu  (73, 69), Stefania Croce (Ita, 69, 73).