Hiding her face with her hands after miscuing a shot into the water, Christine Wolf would have been excused if she broke down at the end of Round Three at the Hero Women’s Indian Open here on Saturday. The Austrian, instead, walked up to the green, completed her round and even managed a smile for the audience despite losing her spot at the top of the leaderboard.
Two years ago, Wolf came closest to winning her maiden LET title here before fading away in the final round. This time, the 29-year old had another meltdown, on the final hole of the day, to lose a four-shot lead and slip to tied second at the DLF Golf and Country Club, counted among the trickiest courses in the country. Becky Morgan, Eleanor Givens and Nicole Broch Larsen instead led the leaderboard in a three-way tie.
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Till the 18th, however, Wolf had been holding her own against relentless push from the competition. Playing safe and preferring caution, a couple of birdies and a bogey on the front nine helped her stay in front. But it was a different game on the back nine and Wolf admitted it was more mental tiredness than anything else.
“I was getting quicker with my drives and it affected the game. And then the 18th happened, which kind of changed it all. But better today than tomorrow. If this had happened on the last day, I would have lost the title. As it stands, I still have a chance to recover and make it all count tomorrow,” she said optimistically.
Wolf, with a healthy three-shot lead despite three bogeys on the back nine until the 17th, took nine shots on the par-five 18th after hitting twice into the water – on her second and fourth approach to the pin. It wiped off all her efforts on the second day over just one hole.
On the other hand, Welshwoman Morgan proved why consistency was so heavily rated on the course, managing a 68 after two days of even-par 72s to sit pretty at the top. Isabelle Boineau of France, meanwhile, shot an impressive 65, the second-lowest round on the course behind the 64 shot by Michelle Thompson last year.
Among the Indians, Tvesa Malik continued to stay ahead of her compatriots with an even-par 216 score for three days. Ridhima Dilawari and Gaurika Bishnoi, however, remained close one shot behind even as Vani Kapoor kept improving her performance after the disastrous Day One to rise to tied 31st with nine others including Astha Madan on 221.
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