German Krauter leads the second round of the Women’s Indian Open, with Vani and Diksha close behind

German rookie Aline Krauter shot a second-round score of 4 under par to seize the lead, but Vani Kapoor stole the show as she shot a 70 on Friday to move up to second place in the US$ 400,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

Following a 67 on Day 1, Diksha Dagar held on for an even par 72 with three birdies and three bogeys in an attempt to climb to the top of the Race to Costa Del Sol rankings. With Sara Kjellker of Sweden (66), who had the best card of the day, she is tied for third at 5-under. Local supporters had a lot to cheer about when Gaurika Bishnoi shot a 69 to tie for seventh place at 3-under with amateur Avani Prashanth (71-70).

Six other Indians made the cut, which was set at 6-over par. Four Indians were in the Top-7 spots on the leaderboard.

Amateur Vidhatri Urs, who had a score of two under after the first nine holes, struggled on the back nine, making four bogeys, including three consecutive from the sixth to the eighth hole. She scored 74, was even par for 36 holes, and tied for 14th place, a significant drop from tied-sixth over the previous day.

Khushi Khanijau (73-73) was T-29, Neha Tripathi (75-72) was T-35, and Ridhima Dilawari (74-71) was T-20.

Nishtha Madan, who had a first-day score of seven over 79, made a remarkable comeback to shoot 70 on the second day to guarantee weekend play at T-51 at 5-over. Amandeep Drall (76-74), who finished second here the previous year, almost missed the cut with a birdie on her penultimate round of the day. With a triple on the par-4 first (her 10th) and a double bogey on the par-4 sixth, her second nine proved difficult. Additionally, she made birdies on the third and fourth holes as well as a final-hole birdie on the ninth.

Vani stated, “It’s so nice to play at your home course. I made six birdies to only four bogeys.” It’s a wonderful and very different sensation.

Vani, who started the front nine two shots behind overnight leader Madelene Stavnar (74) made birdies on holes 3, 7, and 9 before losing strokes on holes 4, 8, and 10. She scored consecutive birdies on holes 12 and 13, then added another on the lovely par-3 16th to quickly take the lead.

After a poor second shot on the 18th hole, Vani was forced to chop out of the woods and bogeyed the par-5 last hole. “It was quite an up and down round,” she said. “I would shoot one bogey after making one. But I’m pleased I persisted.

Aline Krauter, the leader, said, “Today, my ball hitting was pretty fantastic. This is beneficial for this course. I feel like I always leave stuff around the greens, but that’s golf.I placed myself in excellent situations and had several opportunities to make birdies. Although I didn’t convert as many as I could or would have wanted, the round was still fantastic.

The left-handed Diksha Dagar, who was fourth in the Race to Costa Del Sol rankings, was tied for third place. She said, “I didn’t start well.” On her first two holes, Dagar missed her strokes. The pin locations were a little bit trickier than they were yesterday, and today I struggled with my putting.

Dagar recovered by making birdies on holes 8 and 11, but lost another stroke on the challenging par-4 14th. She then made a birdie on the par-5 18th to close the gap on Vani to one. Later, Aline Krauter caught up to both of them.

Avani, who has victories at the Queen Sirikit Cup and on the European LET Access Tour, was certain after her 2-under-par round of 70, which included four birdies and only two bogeys. I started off quite well with a birdie on the first, but I immediately hit a poor shot on the second, the golfer added. On the sixth green, I predicted to my father that I’d make birdies on holes 7, 8, and 9, and that’s precisely what I did. Then, when I entered the back at three under, I was pleased with my performance.

“My three wood somehow sailed on 14 and into the right danger. But other from that, I believe I’m content since the course played challengingly today. I’ll take a two under because, despite being four strokes down with 36 holes remaining, I know I can catch up.

In addition to giving her caddie a lot of credit, she said, “I would definitely say that my caddy helped because I was losing a little bit of my mind in the first six holes but he told me that you’ll figure things out at seven, eight, and nine looking quite easy and I saw in the morning a lot of people had birdied those three holes.”

Despite playing on this course for over 15 years, Gaurika hasn’t been able to carry over her strong performance on the local circuit to the internationals. She said, “To be honest, I’ve had a terrific season (at home), playing in six tournaments, winning two, and placing second in two more. I haven’t got a lot of opportunities to play overseas. Additionally, I first had some difficulty with my injuries. I’m still getting my bearings.