GOLF
Indian teen golfer Zara in shared lead at Queen Sirikit Cup
Indian teen star Zara Anand braved icy and frosty circumstances on the opening morning of the forty fourth Queen Sirikit Cup golf match to card 1-over 73 and take a share of the lead in Christchurch, New Zealand on Wednesday.
The 15-year-old Zara, who was added to the crew by the Indian Golf Union following the withdrawal of 2023 winner Avani Prashanth, shot on the Par-72 Clearwater Golf Membership.
She shared the lead with Chinese language Taipei’s Chun-Wei Wu, the reigning Girls’s Novice Asia-Pacific champion, and Japan’s Aina Fujimoto.
A yr in the past, Avani surprised the sphere by turning into the primary Indian to win particular person honours on the Queen Sirikit Cup in Manila. This yr, nevertheless, Avani is taking part in within the US concurrently Queen Sirikit Cup.
The main trio is one shot forward of 4 others, Shihyun Kim of Korea, Chinese language Taipei’s Ping-Hua Hsieh, Kiwi Eunseo Choi and Australian Sarah Hammett, who all carded 74 every.
Whilst Zara zoomed to the highest with two birdies in opposition to three bogeys, Vidhatri Urs (79) was T-Twentieth and Heena Kang (85) was T-32, because the icy circumstances delayed starting of the play by half an hour.
Scoring was robust and no participant carded an even-par spherical or higher.
Within the crew standings, India was sixth on six-over. Chinese language Taipei led with a three-over-total for 2 greatest scores from crew of three. They have been three photographs away from the host nation, New Zealand, and the pre-tournament favourites, Korea.
Australia and Japan sit an additional shot behind.
Zara, a runner-up on the All India Girls Novice, and a 3rd place finisher on the Hero Girls’s Professional Golf Tour occasion, dropped a shot on the Par-3 fourth, however recovered that shot with a birdie on the Par-3 ninth.
On the again 9, back-to-back bogeys pushed her again however she made up one shot with a birdie on the Par-4 closing 18th for a 73.
Chun-Wei had three birdies and 4 bogeys in the course of the spherical between the eighth and the thirteenth holes, whereas Fujimoto additionally had three birdies in opposition to 4 bogeys.
-PTI