Hitaashee takes a three-shot lead into Title Sunday on home court

DLF golfer Hitaashee Bakshi leads the Hero Women’s Indian Open field by three strokes and will be hoping to end a nine-year wait for a home win after Aditi Ashok’s title in 2016. Image courtesy of HWIO.

By Rahul Banerji

Overnight leader Hitaashee Bakshi held on to Moving Day at the Hero Women’s Indian Open to take a three-shot lead into title Sunday at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon.

England’s Alice Hewson made a late charge over the final eight holes to close in on the runaway leader, while Hitaashee was six shots atop the field at one point.

After 54 holes, Hitaashee was at 9 under par 207 with cards of 70, 67 and 70, while Hewson (69, 72, 69) had a 6 under 210 to her name

With a day to go, five Indians were in the top 10, two of them in the top five with Pranavi Urs in sole third at 4 under 212. Sunday’s leading group of Hitaashee, Alice Hewson and Pranavi, tees off at 11am.

Teenagers Zara Anand (68-70-76) and Avani Prashanth (73-71-70), India’s former top-ranked amateur and the latter in her rookie year on the Ladies European Tour. tied for fourth place at 2 under 214.

They stood next to the Australian Kelsey Bennet (72), Shannon Tan (73) from Singapore and the Swedish Lisa Pettersson (74).

Strong challenge

DLF’s Vani Kapoor (67-74-74), who led after the first day, was the fifth home challenger in the top 10, sharing ninth place at 1 under 213 alongside Sweden’s Kajsa Arwefjall (70) and Germany’s Verena Gimmy (77).

The last Indian win at the HWIO came nine years ago at this track when Aditi Ashok won the 2016 edition.

Former runner-up Amandeep Drall (74-70-72) was tied for 12th, with the remaining six Indians still in the field further down the leaderboard.

Ireland’s Anna Foster had the best card of the day: 5-under 67, with pin positions largely tucked away in the corners, to finish tied for 15th, along with LET rankings leader Mimi Rhodes of England.

“It was tiring on the back nine because the rough really got to me,” Hitaashee said later.

“There was a bit of a birdie-bogie-birdie-bogie pattern that started, but I’m really glad I followed it to the end.

“Like I said, I don’t think too much. I’m just going to take one shot at a time tomorrow. It’s my home court, no pressure. So I’m just going to go out and play.”

Hold an edge

“I think this gives me more of an edge, a push. And because it’s my home club, my home crowd is there, so that’s much better for me. But this is DLF, anything can happen.”

Speaking about her regular visit to India, Hewson added: “I really like it here. I quite like the course, there aren’t many courses you go to in a year where you can turn around and say that.”

“There’s so much value placed on fairways and greens, and when you do that, it seems like you can come away with a few birdies, which is nice.

“Today was really unusual for my game. I’m normally pretty steady, so seven holes in a row without par was really unusual.

“I did joke that the people who made the scoreboards didn’t like me there for a while because they had to keep moving my name up and down and changing the score back and forth.

“But I’m actually enjoying my time there and staying as patient as I can.

“Tomorrow I’m just going to try to stay steady. And you just have to stay really calm and collected out there.”

Demanding course

“Whether you make birdies or bogeys, you just have to shake it off and keep going because this course is so demanding. So yeah, just nice and steady, hopefully.”

For Pranavi, who has had a good year at the LET apart from a phase on the sidelines due to injury, Saturday was a grind. “It was a bit of a struggle for me today,” she said later.

“I didn’t hit the ball well or putt well. But I think despite everything I was pretty calm and stayed patient. It felt like a lot more, but one-over was pretty good with the way I played.”

“I think tomorrow it’s going to be big or go home. I’m going to try to go for it as much as I can.”

Also read: Hitaashee leads HWIO on day two with four Indians in the top 10

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