Pattaya, Feb 1 (PTI): India’s Avani Prashanth made a smart recovery from a bogey start to finish the opening day of the Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific with a strong 4-under 68 card that placed her on a creditable tied fourth here on Thursday.
Avani, winner of the Queen Sirikit Cup individuals last year, and fourth at the World Amateur Team Championships in 2023, had six birdies against two bogeys on a satisfying day.
Three players including Eila Galitsky, bidding to become the first player to win the WAAP twice, her Thai teammate Novaporn Soontreeyapas, who registered a hole-in-one and Chinese Taipei’s Chen-Wei Wu were in shared lead at 5-under 67.
One shot behind, Avani was tied with Thailand’s Pimpisa Rubrong, Amy Im of New Zealand and China’s Yahui Xhang, returning scores of 68 each.
Among other Indians, Vidhatri Urs (73) and debutant Saanvi Somu (73) were tied 39th, while things did not go well for debutants Keerthana Rajeev Nair (81) and Heena Kang (81) at tied 84 and Mannat Brar (82) was 86th.
“I am definitely pleased. The way I started, I was quite confused about how the day was going to go. But then, I took control of my full round by the time I was on the 13th, and that really put things in place,” said Avani.
“I started on the tenth, which is a par-5. I was really happy last night thinking I’m going to tee off on a par-5, you know, a big advantage. But then I proceeded to duck hook my drive and then didn’t get any contact on the ball because I was down in the rough.
Then I duck-hooked my 3-wood into the left — the fairway bunker and I chunked that. Finally, I made an up and down from like 35 yards for bogey. Not how you want to start,” she added.
Avani hoped for an even better second round.
“I put myself in good positions from there on and I set myself up for a birdie on nearly every hole from there. The ones that dropped, dropped, and the ones that didn’t, I’ll probably get them tomorrow.” Avani had a good run from the 13th to the 16th as she birdied three times. She dropped a shot on Par-4 first, but picked birdies on the second, fifth and ninth for a good day’s work.
On her mindset after the bogey start, she said, “The first thing I told myself after hitting the first three shots was that the tournament isn’t won on the first hole. You have 71 more to go. So that’s what I did, and then, thankfully, I started making some putts.” Avani played with World No. 4 Minsol Kim and Mikhaela Rianne Malixi, who won the Australian Masters of The Amateurs last month, edging the Indian into second place.
Rianne and Minsol carded 2-under 70 each.
Leaderboard: 67: Navaporn Soontreeyapas (Tha), Chun-Wei Wu (CTP), Elia Galitsky (Tha) 68: Avani Prashanth (Ind), Pimpisa Rubrong (Tha), Amy Im (NZL), Zhang Yahui (Chn).
Indian scores: Avani Prashanth (68, Tied 4th); Vidhatri Urs (73, Tied 39th), Saanvi Somu (73, Tied 39th), Keerthana Rajeev Nair (81, Tied 84th), Heena Kang (81st, Tied 84th), Mannat Brar (82, 86th).
Source: PTI News
