Women's Golf Association of India

Pranavi second among women and Saptak is third as golfers start well at Asiad

V Krishnaswamy in Nagoya

Nagoya, Sep 30: Pranavi Urs provided the absolute highlight for the Indian women's team, firing a stellar four-under-par 66 to capture sole ownership of second place individually behind the leader, Shannon Tan of Singapore.

Among men, Saptak Talwar, who also shot 4-under 66, was lying tied third, and was just one shot behind the co-leaders, Kazuki Higa of Japan and Wang Wei Hsuan of Chinese Taipei, who carded 5-under 65 each at the challenging Kasugai Country Club East Course, where the shone after almost a week of incessant rains and soggy weather.

Pranavi, making her second Asian Games appearance, brought in a round of 4-under 66 to be sole second but was three shots behind the leader, Shannon Tan (63). The two players, who feature on the Ladies European Tour started from the opposite sides of the Kasugai Country Club Course.

Pranavi, who is backed by Hero, is also hoping to challenge Shannon Tan, when she defends her Hero Women’s Indian Open title in less than four weeks in India. Late last year she became the first Indian woman to win a mixed pro event where she beat top Indian men’s professionals in the IGPL Invitational Mumbai.

The other two Indian women golfers in the Games, the 2023 Asian Games silver medallist Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar carded 1-over 71 each and were Tied-18th. Aditi had one triple bogey on either side of the course and five birdies, while Diksha had two birdies and three bogeys.

With two best scores counting for team honours, the Indian women had a team score of 3-under and were in tied sixth place, as Singapore spearheaded by Tan were 8-under and four clear of Korea, China and Chinese Taipei, all at 4-under.

Among the men the Indian spotlight was on Talwar, who has been having a great season and leads the DP World -PGTI Order of Merit rankings in India. He shot 66 with five birdies and one late bogey, to be tied third.

The other two men Yuvraj Sandhu, who had a great showing in France last week with a T-13 finish against a strong field, shot 1-over 71 as did Veer Ahlawat. Sandhu and Ahlawat were T-23.

The Indian men were tied fifth and six shots behind leaders, Japan who were two shots ahead of China and Korea.

While Tan had a terrific day with nine birdies against two bogeys, Pranavi rallied from a bogey start on the tenth and went on to had three birdies in a span of four holes from the 12th to the 15th. She added two more birdies on her second nine on the fifth and the eighth, and was pleased with her start.

The Japanese men’s challenge was led by the diminutive Kazuki Higa, a former Japan Tour Order of Merit winner, who shot 5-under 65 and shared the lead with Taipei’s in-form Wang Wei-Hsuan (65).

Japan’s Keita Nakajima, a former Hero Indian Open winner, was tied third alongside Talwar, Korea’s Doyeob Mun and China’s Yunhe Zheng, who carded 66 each.

Talwar was thrilled to finally make it to the Asian Games. “Back in 2022-23, I was hoping to get to the Games but missed out. Now it is nice to be here.”

Speaking of his round said, “I think for the first 12 roles, I felt like I should have been lower and I felt like I was hitting well, putting well but I just kept over reading some of the some of the putts and then lost my rhythm off the tee and kind of put myself in some dodgy positions. I got away with bogey on one hole (14th) where I had a plugged lie. But I'm pleased that I did not drop anything coming in. I am still staying in the run for the next few days.

Talking of his first trip to Japan, Talwar, who was followed by his sister, who had come over from Hong Kong, said, “It's the first time to Japan, but the early feel was very European with the rain. It was not cold, but not very friendly golfing weather. But I'm glad we got that over in the practice rounds and the course is much more benign to what we saw the last couple of days.”

He added, “It's a tight course. But it is little more generous than some courses in India. It's obviously penal if you hit it wild, but small misses are not too penal, which I think the Indians would like.”

The greens, with the rain, are still soft but later in the day, they're going to get very spiky. It's gonna get tricky to make putts, but hopefully as they dry up, it should these things are good.”

Sandhu said, “I came in straight from France, where I had a great week. But I had almost no practice here – just got in nine holes. Then we had pelting rain. I hit 16 greens, which were woolly and I had as many as four three-putts and that cost me. Hopefully I can make up as there are three more days.”

Standing at just 5-foot-2, joint leader Kazuki Higa, is a former Japan and Asian Tour Order of Merit winner, and looked solid all day.

The co-leader, Wang Wei Hsuan, who has been having a great season with a couple of wins on the Taiwan PGA and runner-up finishes on the Asian Development Tour and T-4 at the Yeangder TPC on the Asian Tour, carried on his form on the opening day. Wang, who turned 27 three days, was bogey free with three birdies and an eagle on Par-4 fifth.