Kolkata, Dec 11 (IANS) Neha Tripathi, who has skipped the Qualifying School at the Ladies European Tour to gain some valuable practice time and to consolidate her game in the new year, will be looking to add a second title as the Hero womens Pro Golf Tour comes to an end with the 18th and final leg of the 2018 season at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club from Wednesday.
Neha, who participated in some events on the Ladies European Tour this year, was not able to achieve the necessary consistency and is therefore re-looking and working on her game.
Neha, who has one win this season, will have Amandeep Drall, Smriti Mehra and Gursimar Badwal as her main rivals. While Smriti is looking for her first win of 2018, Amandeep has won thrice while Gursimar has won twice.
The order of merit has, however, been settled with Tvesa Malik, who is not here this week, having secured the top spot.
Tvesa, who played each of the first 17 legs, has won four times and earned Rs 15,89,200, while Amandeep aggregated Rs 11,56,000 in second place. Following them is Neha with Rs 10,48,200. Gursimar, who has won Rs 9,65,000, could go past the Rs 10 lakh-mark with a good showing this week.
Several Indian golfers, including Tvesa are missing this week’s action in Kolkara as they are playing in the final stage of the Ladies European Tour Q-School in Marrakesh, Morocco. In total seven Indians are participating including amateur Diksha Dagar, Ridhima Dilawari, Astha Madan, Saaniya Sharma, Sharmila Nicollet and Vani Kapoor.
Khushi Khanijau and Gursimar will start the first day’s proceedings in the first 2-ball, while Preetinder Kaur and Tavleen Batra will follow in the second.
Smriti Mehra, Amandeep and Millie Saroha will constitute the third group, with Hita Prakash, Siddhi Kapoor and Mehar Atwal making up the penultimate group. The final threesome will be Afshan Fatima, Suchitra Ramesh and Neha.
–IANS
tri/bg