Gurugram, Mar 22 (PTI) Tvesa Malik, playing on her home course at the DLF Golf and Country Club, climbed to the top of the leaderboard for the first time this season in the seventh leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour here on Wednesday.

Tvesa, who had a none-too-happy season on the Ladies European Tour in 2022, looked determined as she has been shaking off the rust over the last two weeks.

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A week after losing in a play-off to Gaurika Bishnoi in the sixth leg of the Tour, Tvesa carded four-under 68, her best round of the year, to take a one-shot lead into the final round.

Following up on her modest 74 on the first day, Tvesa, with 68, moved to two-under 142 and was one shot ahead of last week's winner, Gaurika (71-72).

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Amateur Vidhatri Urs, fresh from her experience at the Queen Sirikit Cup where India finished second in the Philippines and then playing at the Women's Amateur Asia Pacific in Singapore, showed good form with one-under 71 and was lying sole third at even par 144.

Vani Kapoor (72-73) suffered three bogeys in the last five holes and was fourth while Ridhima Dilawari (73-74) and Asmitha Sathish (75-72) were tied for the fifth spot.

Tvesa, trying to play herself back into form, has improved with each outing. She birdied the second and then had back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth. She dropped a shot on seventh only to get another pair of birdies on eighth and ninth and then turned in a superb four-under 32.

On the back nine, she bogeyed the 10th and birdied the 17th for the day's work of 68.

Gaurika also had two sets of back-to-back birdies on eighth and ninth and then ay the 16th and 17th. However she dropped bogeys on first, third, 11th and 13th and finished even par and dropped from being an overnight co-leader to second place.

Vidhatri had five birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey and Vani Kapoor had three birdies and three of her four bogeys came on Par-5s as she carded 73.

Seher Atwal (76-73), with one birdie and one bogey on either side of the course, was sole seventh while another amateur Anvvi Dahhiya (80-73) and Amandeep Drall (74-79), the runner-up at the Hero Women's Indian Open at the same course last year, were tied eighth.

Oviya Reddi (77-77) and Agrima Manral (75-79) were tied 10th.

Amandeep had a round to forget as she parred the whole of front nine and then had four bogeys in a row from 10th and closed with a triple bogey on 18th.

The cut fell at 161 and 23 players made the cut. Among the prominent names missing the cut were Saaniya Sharma and Hitaashee Bakshi. Tee times for the second round of the seventh leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf and Country Club: 1. 7:30 am: Ananya Datar 161, Durga Nittur 161 2. 7:40 am: Jasmine Shekar 160, Sneha Singh 160, Lakhmehar Pardesi 159 3. 7:50 am: Khushi Khanijau 159, Riya Yadav 158, Kriti Chowhan 158 4. 8:00 am: Neha Tripathi 158, Rhea Purvi S. 157, Shweta Mansingh 156 5. 8:15 am: Rhea Jha 155, Agrima Manral 154, Oviya Reddi 154 6. 8:25 am: Amandeep Drall 153, Anvvi Dahhiya (A) 153, Seher Atwal 149 7. 8:35 am: Ridhima Dilawari 147, Asmitha Sathish 147, Vani Kapoor 145 8. 8:45 am: Vidhatri Urs (A) 144, Gaurika Bishnoi 143, Tvesa Malik 142

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)