Christchurch (New Zealand), Mar 20 (PTI) Indian teen star Zara Anand braved icy and frosty conditions on the opening morning of the 44th Queen Sirikit Cup golf tournament to card 1-over 73 and take a share of the lead here on Wednesday.

The 15-year-old Zara, who was added to the team by the Indian Golf Union following the withdrawal of 2023 winner Avani Prashanth, shot at the Par-72 Clearwater Golf Club.

She shared the lead with Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Wu, the reigning Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific champion, and Japan’s Aina Fujimoto.

A year ago, Avani stunned the field by becoming the first Indian to win individual honours at the Queen Sirikit Cup in Manila. This year, however, Avani is playing in the US at the same time as Queen Sirikit Cup.

The leading trio is one shot ahead of four others, Shihyun Kim of Korea, Chinese Taipei’s Ping-Hua Hsieh, Kiwi Eunseo Choi and Australian Sarah Hammett, who all carded 74 each.

Even as Zara zoomed to the top with two birdies against three bogeys, Vidhatri Urs (79) was T-20th and Heena Kang (85) was T-32, as the icy conditions delayed beginning of the play by half an hour.

Scoring was tough and no player carded an even-par round or better.

In the team standings, India was sixth on six-over. Chinese Taipei led with a three-over-total for two best scores from team of three. They were three shots clear of the host nation, New Zealand, and the pre-tournament favourites, Korea.

Australia and Japan sit a further shot behind.

Zara, a runner-up at the All India Ladies Amateur, and a third place finisher at the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour event, dropped a shot on the Par-3 fourth, but recovered that shot with a birdie on the Par-3 ninth.

On the back nine, back-to-back bogeys pushed her back but she made up one shot with a birdie on the Par-4 closing 18th for a 73.

Chun-Wei had three birdies and four bogeys in the middle of the round between the eighth and the 13th holes, while Fujimoto also had three birdies against four bogeys.

Source: PTI News