Maiden professional victory for Panchkula golfer Amandeep Drall

Rookie Panchkula based golfer Amandeep Drall finally registered her first professional victory on the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour 2015 and walked away with the winner’s cheque after the final round of the 12th Leg of the Women’s Professional Golf Tour at the Prestige Golfshire on Friday. The three-day Rs 6,00,000 event culminated on Friday.

After several good performances and three runners-up finishes, Amandeep finally secured the elusive win with a total of 217 after 54 holes. With this win, she has now consolidated her position at second place in the Hero Order Of Merit with total earnings of Rs 84,935 from 12 appearances.

The Panchkula youngster played a birdie-free round with a lone bogey on the first hole. She ended the day with a score of 1 over 73, which was enough for her to protect her one shot lead over runner-up Vani Kapoor, who finished with a total of 218.

Vani, the Hero Order of Merit leader, who had been hot on Amandeep’s heels throughout the event, carded two birdies on the 8th and 10th holes.

But a bogey on the 2nd, along with a double bogey on the 7th meant that she could not erase the deficit to force a play-off, thus securing the runners-up position.

Vani has now strengthened her position at the top of the leaderboard with total earnings of Rs 2,70,200 in 12 appearances, with four wins and five runners-up finishes.

Kolkata’s Neha Tripathi ended with a total score of 221 to finish 3rd. Neha fired four birdies on the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 16 holes, but six bogeys on the 4th, 5th, 10th, 13th, 14th and 15th cancelled out the birdies and saw her end the final day with a score of 2 over 74.

She now moves to the third position in the money list with total earnings of 7,82,766 in 12 appearances.

Hero Motocorp sponsored Sharmila Nicollet, Kapurthala’s Gursimar Badwal and amateur Trisha Sunil ended with identical scores of 225 to finish tied 4th.

Sharmila, who carded four birdies on the 2nd, 3rd , 9th and 17th holes, could have finished much higher on the leaderboard, but bogeys on the 1st, 5th, 6th, 10th, 13th and 16th holes along with a double bogey on the 7th meant she had to be content with a score of 4 over 76, and settle for the tied fifth spot.

Gursimar’s round included a lone birdie on the 13th hole, along with three bogeys on the 2nd 11th and 17th and also a double on the 10th. Trisha played an error-prone round of 6 over 78. Delhi’s Ankita Tiwana ended with a total of 230 to finish in 7th position.

Behind her on tied 8th position with identical scores of 233 were Pune’s Shweta Galande and Chandigarh’s Saaniya Sharma.