Seher Atwal grabbed a last hole birdie and with it the sole lead in the eighth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Clover Greens here on Thursday .
Seher, who trailed overnight leader Gaurika Bishnoi (68-70) by one shot, is now one ahead with rounds of 69-68 and a total of 137.
The cut fell at 9-over 153 and 25 players made the final round.
Rookie Kriti Chowhan showed that she is settling into pro golf with a fine round of 5-under 67, which was the best card of the day, and moved to third, up from overnight tied seventh place. Kriti has cards of 72-67.
Hitaashee Bakshi turned in a consistent card with 2-under 70 after a first round 71 to be Tied-fourth at 141 alongside amateur Keerthana Rajiv (71-70), while another amateur Saanvi Somu (71-71) is sixth as the top six are under par for 36 holes. Just two shots separate the top three players and three others are within five of the leader to set up a tight finish.
Amateurs continued to do well as Anvitha Narender (74-71) was seventh and Ayushi Dutta (73-73) was tied eighth alongside Rishika Muralidhar (74-72) and Jasmine Shekar (72-74).
Seher got off to a blazing start with birdies on first and second and added further gains on the Par-3 fourth and Par-4 seventh and was 4-under 32 for the front nine. She ran up a string of pars from 10th to 16th, before dropping her first shot of the day on Par-5 17th. She quickly made up with a birdie on 18th for a card of 68.
Gaurika had a super run of three birdies in a row from ninth to 11th and had two other birdies on the first and 18th. Her three dropped shots came on the third, 12th and 14th for a day’s score of 2-under 70.
Kriti Chowhan’s 67 was most impressive with four birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine. She gave away shots on fourth and the 18th.
Among other big names in the field, Sneha Singh, twice winner this season, was Tied-11th with 73-74 and Tvesa Malik (76-72) was Tied-13th.
In the final round, both Seher and Gaurika are looking for their second win of the season, while Kriti seeks the first win of her professional career. Seher won the first leg of the year and Gaurika triumphed in the sixth leg.