Gurugram, Oct 19 (PTI) Home favourite Diksha Dagar (67) and a resurgent Vani Kapoor (68) occupied two of the top three spots after the first round of the Hero Women’s Indian Open as Norway’s Madalene Stavnar (66) took the lead here on Thursday.

Diksha overcame an early bogey to find six birdies later to be one shot behind Stavnar, who is searching for her maiden win on the Ladies European Tour. Vani Kapoor shot 4-under 68 to be third.

As Diksha and Vani moved up the leaderboard towards the end of the day, amateur Vidhatri Urs shot 2-under 70 to be T-6 while another amateur Avani Prashanth was T-10 with 1-under 71 despite three bogeys in the last eight holes.

Avani is the winner of the prestigious Queen Sirikit Cup for amateurs and the Ahlsell Final in Sweden on the LET Access Tour for professionals.

Another Indian Gaurika Bishnoi (72) was T-17 after a round that had three birdies against a bogey and a double bogey.

Diksha, who can go to the top of the Race to Costa Del Sol standings with a win this week, said, “It was a slow start (from the tenth tee) for me today because on 11th hole, I was confused with the club selection.

“So I wasn’t confident about the tee shot. Never mind, I could have made an up and down. But it was alright, afterwards I hit six birdies and I had a solid round.” The leader Stavnar, who along with Sara Kjellker (73) accompanied Vani and Amandeep Drall for a taste of Indian street food two days ago, had a clean card with six birdies and no bogeys.

Stavnar opened with three pars and then had four birdies on fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth to turn in 4-under. She added gains on 13th and 15th and kept bogeys off her card.

Vani, who needs a good finish this week to get into Top-60 for the next LET event in Spain, started on the tenth with three pars and then had four birdies in a row.

Amateurs Vidhatri and Avani had under-par rounds in the morning wave.

Source: PTI News