Gaurika finishes with hat-trick of birdies to take 6-shot lead over Pranavi in 13th leg of WPGT

Gaurika, who has not tasted victory since the seventh leg of the 2019 season, carded 3-under 69, the only under-par round of the day. With Pranavi Urs, her nearest rival, struggling on the back nine with two bogeys and a double bogey, Gaurika snatched a massive six-shot lead with 18 more holes to go.

The last time Gaurika won, Pranavi was still an amateur and had finished second at Clover Greens in Tamil Nadu in June 2019.

Gaurika has now carded 71-69 to Pranavi's 71-75. Tied with Pranavi for the second place was overnight leader Nayanika Sanga, who, after a 70 in the first round, could not find a single birdie. Nayanika finished 4-over 76.

On a day when scoring was not easy, Sneha Singh (77-74) was fourth with Oviya Reddi (75-78) fifth. Seher Atwal (75-80) was sixth.

Gaurika, who has been playing well in patches, has not been able to string three strong rounds together. This week she seems to be on her way to overcoming that. She started the day with a bogey but birdies on the sixth and ninth holes meant she turned in 1-under. On the back nine, she dropped a shot on par-4 13th to fall back to even par. A hat-trick of birdies on the last three holes meant she finished at 69.

Pranavi had one bogey and one birdie on the front nine and then a second bogey hit her on the par-4 13th, where Gaurika, too, had dropped a shot.

However, on the last four holes, the fortunes of Gaurika and Pranavi were contrasting. Pranavi double-bogeyed the par-5 15th and had another bogey on the 17th with a birdie in between on the 16th. Gaurika, meanwhile, had birdies on 16-17-18.

Sneha Singh may well have been closer to the leader, but for a quadruple bogey on Par-4 ninth hole. Apart from the quadruple bogey, Sneha had four birdies and two bogeys in her card of 74.

Four players, Ridhima Dilawari (78-79), Neha Tripathi (78-79), amateur Jasmine Shekar (78-79) and Khushi Khanijau (75-82) were tied for seventh place. (ANI)