Tvesa Malik made the most of her opportunities to take the early lead at the Oxford Golf Resort leg of the Hero WPGT in Pune on Tuesday. Image courtesy WGAI.
By Rahul Banerji
Tvesa Malik held the sole lead at the Oxford Golf Resort leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour with the opening day’s only bogey-free round on Tuesday.
Looking for the form and rhythm that made her one of the best players on Tour, Tvesa had one birdie on each side of the course.
A total field of 44 players teed up at the Rs.17 lakh event, the WGAI said.
Anvitha Narender (71) had three birdies and two bogeys in the first eighth holes and parred the last 10 to hold second place.
Amateurs Priya Kumari and Lavanya Gupta carded level par 72s to tie for third.
National champion Lavanya may well have been in a share of the lead but for the bogeys on holes 17 and 18.
Tvesa, who is hoping for some starts on the Ladies European Tour later in the season, birdied the Par-5 fourth and the Par-3 14th.
Missed chances
She also missed a few other birdie chances as the putts did not drop.
Anvitha opened birdie-birdie but gave away back-to-back bogeys on six and seven before picking her final birdie of the day on the Par-3 eighth.
Riya Jadon, Shagun Narain and Ananya Garg were tied for fifth place on 1 over 73.
Amandeep Drall, Durga Nittur, Karishma Govind, amateur Aradhana Manikandan and Khushi Khanijau carded 74s to share eighth place.
Ridhima Dilawari was T13 alongside Prakruthi, Rhea Purvi, Shweta Mansingh and Nayanika Sanga on 75s.
Five in LET opener
Meanwhile, five Indians will tee it up as the 2026 Ladies European Tour season gets going with the PIF Saudi Ladies International at Riyadh Golf Club from Wednesday.
Leading the way is Diksha Dagar, who finished 25th on the 2025 LET Order of Merit. Diksha will be keen to push for a much higher finish this season, having earlier ended 2023 inside the Top-3.
She will be joined by Avani Prashanth, who enjoyed a superb debut season, Pranavi Urs, who made a strong comeback after an injury setback midway through last year, and Hitaashee Bakshi, who secured her LET card with a fine Top-3 finish at the Hero Indian Open, where three Indians featured in the Top-5.
Also in the field is India’s most experienced campaigner on the international stage, Aditi Ashok, who continues to split her time between the LPGA Tour and the LET, on which she is a five-time winner.
Scores and round 2 tee times
7:50 am: Oviya Reddi 78, Alysha Dutt (A) 78, Neha Tripathi 77
8 am: Mannat Brar 77, Vidhatri Urs 77, Lavanya Jadon 77
8:10 am: Ketaki Sood 76, Vani Kapoor 76, Irene Nakalembe 76
8:20 am: Anahita Singh 76, Nayanika Sanga 75, Shweta Mansingh 75
8:30 am: Rhea Purvi 75, Prakruthi Sastry 75, Ridhima Dilawari 75
8:45 am: Khushi Khanijau 74, Amandeep Drall 74, Aradhana Manikandan (A) 74
8:55 am: Karishma Govind 74, Durga Nittur 74, Ananya Garg 73
9:05 am: Shagun Narain 73, Riya Jadon 73, Lavanya Gupta (A)
9:15 am: Priya Kumari (A) 72, Anvitha Narender 71, Tvesa Malik 70;
Tee 10
7:50 am: Jasmine Shekar 78, Anisha Agarwalla 79
8 am: Sneha Singh 79, Gauri Karhade 79
8:10 am: Shrestha Shukla 80, Agrima Manral 80, Ananya Datar 80
8:20 am: Eti Chaudhary 81, Disha Kavery 81, Mayara Sharma 81
8:30 am: Riddhima Singh (A) 81, Yaalisai Verma 81, Esther Lobo 82
8:40 am: Prarthana Khanna 83, Anaggha Venkatesh 83, Jia Kochhar 85
Also read: Vani, Ridhima headline field at the Oxford leg of Hero WPGT
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