<p> Delhi’s Vani Kapoor outsmarted her much fancied rivals to storm into sole lead in the opening round of the Hero-WGAI Women’s Pro Golf Tour’s third leg event here on Tuesday.<br /><br /><br /></p>.<p>Vani, who nearly grabbed a title on her pro debut in the opening leg two weeks ago before losing in a play-off to Sharmila Nicollet, gave another indication of her fine talent with a brilliant one-under 71 at the Prestige Golfshire.<br /><br />Nalini Singh Siwach was tied for the second place along with local amateur Aditi Ashok three shots behind while title favourite Smriti Mehra courted disaster after disaster for a hugely disappointing 76.<br /><br />Despite playing at a course that was playing host to a pro tournament for just the second time, Vani hardly appeared troubled unlike the rest of the field who found it difficult to get a measure of. Playing solidly right through the day, the 18-year-old, who shot the only sub-par round of the day, could have signed off with a much bigger lead had it not been for a few missed putts. After a sedate start, Vani picked her shot of the day on the par-5 5th before going two-under with a birdie on the 11th. Her lone blemish came on the 13th where she bogeyed.<br /><br />In contrast, Smriti looked completely out of sorts. Following a promising start with a birdie on the third hole, things just went from bad to worse for the 40-year-old. She collected double bogeys on the fourth and seventh holes, dropped a shot each on the seventh, 11th and closing 18th with birdies on the 12th and 17th holes reducing the extent of the damage.<br /><br />Leading scores (after 18 holes, ‘A’ denotes amateur): 71: Vani Kapoor; 74: Nalini Singh Siwach, Aditi Ashok (A); 75: Shraddhanjali Singh; 76: Smirit Mehra, Saaniya Sharma; 77: Neha Tripathi; 80: Rani Sonti, Nikita Arjun (A).</p>
<p> Delhi’s Vani Kapoor outsmarted her much fancied rivals to storm into sole lead in the opening round of the Hero-WGAI Women’s Pro Golf Tour’s third leg event here on Tuesday.<br /><br /><br /></p>.<p>Vani, who nearly grabbed a title on her pro debut in the opening leg two weeks ago before losing in a play-off to Sharmila Nicollet, gave another indication of her fine talent with a brilliant one-under 71 at the Prestige Golfshire.<br /><br />Nalini Singh Siwach was tied for the second place along with local amateur Aditi Ashok three shots behind while title favourite Smriti Mehra courted disaster after disaster for a hugely disappointing 76.<br /><br />Despite playing at a course that was playing host to a pro tournament for just the second time, Vani hardly appeared troubled unlike the rest of the field who found it difficult to get a measure of. Playing solidly right through the day, the 18-year-old, who shot the only sub-par round of the day, could have signed off with a much bigger lead had it not been for a few missed putts. After a sedate start, Vani picked her shot of the day on the par-5 5th before going two-under with a birdie on the 11th. Her lone blemish came on the 13th where she bogeyed.<br /><br />In contrast, Smriti looked completely out of sorts. Following a promising start with a birdie on the third hole, things just went from bad to worse for the 40-year-old. She collected double bogeys on the fourth and seventh holes, dropped a shot each on the seventh, 11th and closing 18th with birdies on the 12th and 17th holes reducing the extent of the damage.<br /><br />Leading scores (after 18 holes, ‘A’ denotes amateur): 71: Vani Kapoor; 74: Nalini Singh Siwach, Aditi Ashok (A); 75: Shraddhanjali Singh; 76: Smirit Mehra, Saaniya Sharma; 77: Neha Tripathi; 80: Rani Sonti, Nikita Arjun (A).</p>
