Smriti wins 11th leg of Hero golf

Smriti Mehra

Hosur, Sep 12 (IANS) Veteran Smriti Mehra reined supreme in the 10th leg of the Hero Women's Professional Golf Tour which culminated at the Clover Greens Golf Course here Friday.

The Rs.4 lakh event saw Smriti walk away with the winner's cheque, carding a total of 207 at the end of the third and final round. Trailing Smriti by a huge margin of eight strokes was Delhi's Vani Kapoor, who finished second, thanks to her impressive comeback Thursday and a cautious round Friday.

Kolkata golfer Neha Tripathi and Shweta Galande from Pune finished tied third with identical totals of 216 after 54 holes.

Smriti teed off to an impressive start carding two birdies on sixth and ninth holes along with a lone bogey on the seventh to complete her front nine. On her way back, she faltered twice on the 10th and 11th but quickly got back on track with three successive birdies on the 12th, 13th and 14th to finish as the winner, carding the days lowest round of two under 68.

Order of Merit leader Vani could not keep her momentum and finished second carding a total of 215. She began cautiously carding just a lone bogey on the sixth in her front nine. However, she took chances in the back nine finishing with three birdies on the 10th, 12th and 15th with an equal number of bogies on the 13th, 16th and 18th.

Neha played a calculated round carding the days only other under par score of one under 69. Her round consisted of three birdies on the second, seventh and 16th with just two bogies on the eighth and 15th while Shweta carded one birdie on the second and two bogeys on the 14th and 18th.

Chandigarh's Saaniya Sharma finished fifth with a total score of 222. Kapurthala's Gursimar Badwal and Delhi's Ankita Tiwani finished tied sixth with an identical score of 224.

The tour now moves to Coorg Golf Links for the 12th leg September 16-19.