Ridhima takes lead

Ridhima,who turned 14 in July,is currently second behind Aditi Ashok in Category B. Aditi,who has played back to back weeks on the circuit for quite some time,is not playing this week and Ridhima grabbed that opportunity and took a big step to making her presence felt at the ladies amateur tour’s season’s penultimate event. She overcame an early double bogey on the second hole,to sink four other birdies against just one bogey for her 70.

Seher was four-over for the front nine,but had two birdies and three bogeys on the back nine for a 37. Gurbani’s short game which has been her strength in the past two weeks where she picked successive titles at Kolkata and Mumbai,let her down on the first day. She struggled with her putting,making as many as six bogeys and a double against just two birdies in her card of 77,while Millie Saroha was also four over for the front nine. But she recovered with two birdies on 10th and 12th,at which point she seemed to be doing well. Then she lapsed into errors with five straight bogeys from 14th to the 18th and ended at 77.

Millie Saroha and Gurbani led Category A with 77 each,while in Category B,Ridhima (70) was way ahead of Seher Atwal (76). In Category C,Riya Ahuja (81) was leading with Arushi Pandey trailing second at 86. In Category D,Tanishka Kumar (82) was on top with Anika Varma (89) second.