Australia's Whitney Hillier carded one-under 71 for a two-round tally of 138 to take a one-stroke lead in the Hero Women's Indian Open at the DLF Golf Course and Country Club here on Friday.
Norway's Mariaane Skarpnord, too, returned a 71 to hold the second place with England’s Charlotte Thompson who fired the day’s best 65.
Overnight joint leaders England’s Meghan MacLaren (73) and Sweden’s Linda Wessberg (71) shared the fourth spot at 140.
Interestingly, Scotland’s Kelsey MacDonald shot a hole-in-one at the par-3 16th during her par round.
Among the home challengers, Amandeep Drall reeled off birdies on the last three holes for a 70 and was tied-eighth at 142.
“I am definitely happier with my performance since it was better than yesterday. I gave myself more birdie opportunities and got in more putts today, which was the difference between the first and second day. Much depends on my putting tomorrow. I am hitting the ball really well,” said Drall.
For the leader, there were no birdies on the front nine. After the turn, Hillier double bogeyed the 10th hole. But her patience paid off on this hot yet breezy day. She fired four birdies by sticking to her game plan.
“I stayed very steady and I am very happy about that. There were many ups and downs but after the 10th hole, I got it back. It was very challenging with the wind. I got really lucky on the 14th hole. I made a few good birdies coming in and then obviously the 17th and 18th were good to finish with those last two putts.” said the leader.
The ‘cut’ came at 151 which left 68 players including 10 Indians – Drall, Tvesa Malik, Vaani Kapoor, Diksha Dagar, Gaurika Bishnoi, Anika Verma, Jahanvi Bakshi, Pranavi Urs, Astha Madan and Seher Atwal – playing over the weekend.
Second round scores:
138 - Whitney Hillier (Aus) (67,71); 139 - Mariaane Skarpnord (Nor) (68,71) and Charlotte Thompson (Eng) (74, 65); 140 - Linda Wessberg (Swe) (69, 71 ), Meghan MacLaren( Eng) (67, 73); 141 - Lydia Hall (Wal) (72, 69) and Christine Wolf (Aut) (73, 68).
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