Zara Anand of India shares the lead in the Queen Sirikit Cup

The 44th Queen Sirikit Cup at the Par-72 Clearwater Golf Club in Christchurch, New Zealand, began with India’s Zara Anand sharing the lead.

Zara shot 73 to share the lead with Aina Fujimoto of Japan and Chun-Wei Wu of China Taipei, the current Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific champion.

Zara joined the Indian Golf Union when 2023 champion Avani Prashanth, who is playing in the US, withdrew.

The players had to deal with icy conditions in the morning, and frost caused a temporary delay in play. It was quite difficult to score, with no player over 73.

Avani Prashanth made history last year when he won the Queen Sirikit Cup in Manila, becoming the first Indian to do so.

The four players who carded 74 apiece—Korean Shihyun Kim, Chinese Taipei’s Ping-Hua Hsieh, Kiwi Eunseo Choi, and Australian Sarah Hammett—are all one shot behind the three leaders.

Zara was first, although her fellow countrymen Vidhatri Urs (79) was T-20th and Heena Kang (85) was T-32. The conditions were frigid from the start, and ice caused the play to be postponed for thirty minutes.

China Taipei led with a three-over-total for two top scores from a team of three, while India finished sixth in the team rankings.

They were three strokes ahead of both the pre-tournament favorites, Korea, and the host country, New Zealand.

Zara, who finished third in the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour event and finished runner-up in the All India Ladies Amateur, missed a stroke on the Par-3 fourth hole but made up for it with a birdie on the Par-3 ninth.

Despite being pushed back by consecutive bogeys on the back nine, she recovered one stroke by making a birdie on the Par-4 last hole, the 18th, to finish at 73.