Pranavi becomes first woman to lead at IGPL, shares honours with Kochhar

Pranavi Urs became the first woman player to hold a share of the lead at any point on the IGPL Tour With a round of 6under 62 she shares the lead with Karandeep Kochhar after the first day of the IGPL Invitational MumbaiPranavi playing her first IGPL event has in the past won at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club but on the Hero Womenrsquos Pro Golf Tour She produced a sizzling round of 6under 62 at the Par68 BPGC coursePranavi who had eight birdies against two bogeys is tied at the top with her boyfriend Kochhar who a few minutes earlier finished eaglepareagle for his 62Kochhar had two eagles three birdies and just one bogey on the fourth Kochhar playing only his second IGPL event and Pranavi making her IGPL debut have been seeing each other for a little over two years They will now get to play the second round togetherPranavi plays on the Ladies European Tour while Kochhar is assured of an Asian Tour card next seasonIt was a great day for the women golfers as four of them figured in the Top10 Pranavi was the leader while Vani Kapoor was T6 alongside Durga Nittur and Ridhima Dilawari was T9Trailing the coleaders is twice winner Aman Raj who is also the IGPL Order of Merit leader with a 4under 64 to be thirdKartik Singh who has been having a great season despite not winning is Tied fourth with 3under 65 which started with a birdie on the first and a bogey on the third followed by six pars On the back nine he had four birdies against one bogey ldquoIt was a good day but a lot of putts did not fallrdquo said the teen golferPranavi was happy with the dayrsquos work She said ldquoOverall my game was good the hitting was good and my putting was goodSo it just makes my life a lot easier hitting the fairways and the green because thats the key on this golf course Its not that long for me but to keep it in the fairway is something that I had to do todayrdquo said PranaviPranavi had three birdies in a row twice ndash first from fourth to the sixth but had backtoback bogeys after that Then again she birdied from the 10th to the 12th as she had five bridies on the back nineShe added ldquoI think I hit the ball well and I gave myself a lot of opportunities and which is good and thats what you need to There were some real good runs like twice I had three birdies in a rowrdquoOn whether Kochhar and she discuss golf a lot she said ldquoWe discuss to a limit like we dont overdo it to each other He doesnt tell me what to do and I dont tell him really what to doWe make our own decisions but if you know Im confused or if hes confused then we obviously have a pros and cons kind of conversation and we kind of figure it outrdquoOn the upcoming second round she laughed and added ldquoWe often discuss our game with each other but tomorrow we will try to beat each otherrdquoKochhar who is coming in from his maiden International win in Egypt said ldquoI think I hung in there pretty much all day I didnt have my lsquoArsquo game at the start I would say but started with a good birdie on the first But then I dropped a shot on the fourth with a mistake I got unlucky with my drive in the middle of the fifth when it was a mud ball and couldnt do much for that I was able to make like a 30yard upanddown which was really good Then I had a birdie on the eighthldquoAnd then just kind of kind of went about my business being one birdie in the middle and I think got a little hot in the end finishing eaglepareagle in the last three holesrdquoOn his finish with two eagles in last three holes he said ldquoGot lucky on 16 I mean I had a good putt obviously but it was like 4050 feet away and it kind of just went in the middle of a hole I hit really two great shots on the last one on the 18th which has a narrow fairway but is a short hole for par five but you really have to be in the fairway I was able to hit my second to 45 feet for the putt eaglerdquoAman Raj 64 finished birdiebirdie at the finish to be third He said ldquoIt was a nice finish with birdiebirdie and 4under was a decent score There were a lot of nice pars I saved so overall a good day In the period that I had two wins Jaipur and Kolkata I was tired because I had played quite a few weeks in a row so Jamshedpur was not so great but this week again I am feeling nice and rested and it showed todayrdquoOverall Kartik was tied fourth with Shaurya Binu 65 while Pukhraj Singh Gill Vani Kapoor and Durga Nittur were tied sixth with 2under 66 eachAmateur Ranveer Mitroo 67 was tied ninth Ridhima Dilawari Sachin Baisoya Saarthak Chhibber Manav Shah Shat Mishra and the legendary SSP Chawrasia They all shot 1under 67 eachThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever