Jeddah, Nov 11 (Golf News) India's Vani Kapoor continued her fine form as she opened with 3-under that put her in the Top-10 on her debut at the Aramco Team Series here.
Vani was just two shots off the lead, which was shared by five players, as she ended the day tied 9th.
Tvesa Malik and Diksha Dagar carded 71 each to be tied 33rd.
The fourth Indian in the fray, Amandeep Drall, runner-up at the Indian Open, opened with a disappointing 74 to be tied 77th.
Five players held a share of the lead with 5-under 67 each and they included Ursula Wikstrom of Finland, Nicole Garcia of South Africa, Virgina Elena Carta of Italy, Ana Pelaez Trivino of Spain and Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden.
Vani, coming off a fine Top-10 finish on the Ladies European Tour’s Hero Women’s Indian Open at home, had a brilliant start with four birdies in the first five holes the first, second, fourth and fifth.
She then ran out of birdies but maintained pars, except at the par-4 14th, where she dropped a shot.
Tvesa had three birdies against two bogeys as did Diksha. Amandeep had two bogeys on eighth and ninth and no birdies.
Team Kreuzer held a one-shot lead at the end of the first day.
It was quite the morning for Germany’s Helen Tamy Kreuzer as she was the first reserve heading into day one of the tournament and received a message at 5am to say Becky Brewerton had to withdraw and she would now be playing.
Few hours later Kreuzer alongside Carta, Sweden’s Lina Boqvist and Saudi amateur Lujain Khalil went atop the leaderboard in the team competition on 17-under-par.
The quartet didn’t drop a shot on day one, shooting nine-under-par on the front nine and coming home in eight-under-par to put them a shot clear at the top of the leaderboard at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
Three teams sit in second place on the leaderboard with Team Ström, Team Garcia and Team Peláez Trivino all on 16-under-par.
Team Wikstrom are one shot further back on 15-under with Team Grechi in sixth place on 14-under and four teams round up the top 10 with Team Then, Team Gustavsson, Team Wolf and Team Alonso all on 13-under-par.
In the individual competition, five players share the lead at the end of day one. It was a bogey-free day for both Garcia and Peláez Trivino, who rolled in one eagle and three birdies apiece on their way to five-under-par.
Gustavsson is back at the venue which kickstarted her 2022 season, as she finished as runner-up here at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International in March and is coming into the week off the back of a Team victory in New York.
Three players are one shot further back with France’s Lucie Malchirand, Germany’s Chiara Noja and Sweden’s Jessica Karlsson in T6 on four-under-par.
Nine players including Vani and four Swedes are in a tie for ninth place on three-under-par.
Also Read : Afshan maintains lead in WPGT
News Source : PTI
