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Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour: Neha Tripathi happy with her game after injury break
Defending champion recovered from a back injury which she had picked up during the Hero Indian Open in March last year.
Soft and firm fairways at the Poona Club Golf Course pleased the participants at the first leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2020’s first round on Wednesday. Trying out a new swing after making her return from a back injury, defending champion Neha Tripathi ended the day in seventh position on the leaderboard with a final score of 74, which was three-over-par. The 27-year-old, who has been a regular visitor to the city’s golf course, believes the turf has gotten better and made it easy for her to play after a two-month sabbatical.
Tripathi, who hails from Kolkata and is currently leading the order of merit in the women’s professional golf in the country, recently recovered from a back injury which she had picked up during the Hero Indian Open in March last year. “It was diagnosed as a back spasm. I did not pay heed to it and eventually, because of my negligence, I had to take a two-month break to visit a rehab,” she said.
However, returning to the course has started smoothly for her even after finishing seventh on day one. Tripathi specified that she was not thinking about scores this week at least. “Ensuring that I am able to land the ball in the fairway and get it on the green is more important than thinking about what I am shooting or who the winner will be. So, I am sticking to this process as of now,” said the defending champion.
Speaking of the turf, Tripathi could only find positives with every aspect of the course. “I have always loved to play at the Poona Club Golf Course. The fairways are getting better after every year and the greens are just spectacular. It was good last year as well, but there has been a marked improvement all over the course. Even with the putts, there is not a lot of movement if you read your line well,” she said.
“I like the turf here in Pune because if you hit a solid contact, the ball will spin the way you want it to. The fairways are soft and firm at the same time. The chances of a wrist injury here are very low. I enjoyed hitting balls on the fairways this time,” she said. Tripathi believes that the only thing missing in Pune and in India are the relatively longer courses. According to her, the golf courses in Europe are 200 to 400 yards longer than India.
Tripathi said that the sport gets more challenging when the length of the courses increases. “The overall yardage matters because the longer the course, the more challenging it gets for the players,” she said.
In the first nine holes, Tripathi was at par in five. She was a tad scruffy on the second and fourth hole where she went one-over-par. However, after the two Bogies, she recovered in the seventh and ninth holes where she notched Birdies on both occasions. She was at par at the midway point and managed to do the same in seven of the remaining nine holes. Tripathi went one-over-par again in the eleventh hole, while complacent putting resulted in a Double Bogey in the final hole.
Fluffing her lines at the last hole pushed Tripathi down from third to seventh at the end of the day in round one. She said, “I was scrambling throughout the round because of the lack of practice and play time. I played a round of 18 yesterday for the first time after two months. I did not know what to expect in today’s round. Hence, I committed some silly errors and did not play the way I usually do, especially towards the end.”
Solo amateur of the tournament tops the chart on day one
Amateur golfer Pranavi Urs surprisingly ended day one of the tournament at the top of the leaderboard finishing one-under-par after eighteen holes with a final score of 70. Amongst the 26 participants, Pranavi is the only amateur golfer. She shared the top-spot with Ridhima Dilawari, who finished with a score which was one-under-par.
Pranavi got off to a shaky start as she notched a Bogie in the very first hole. She evened the score out in the third hole by nabbing a Birdie. Pranavi repeated the feat in the eighth hole as well, registering a Par in each of the remaining holes which ensured that she was one-under-par at the midway point.
She was at Par from the tenth to the sixteenth hole. A Bogie in the seventeenth hole brought her score down, but she retook the first position after her third Birdie of the game in the eighteenth and final hole.
