Hitaashee Bakshi takes lead in Women's Indian Open

Gurugram: India's Hitaashee Bakshi teed off early in the morning just as the sun was rising and brought home a solid bogey-free five-under 67 in the second round to vault to the top of the leaderboard at the $500,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open.

Hitaashee’s 67, alongside her first round 70, took her to 7-under and the sole lead at the halfway stage here at DLF Golf and Country Club.

It was the first time Hitaashee was holding the lead in a Ladies European Tour event.

Right behind Hitaashee on the leaderboard, which had a distinct Indian touch, was teenager amateur, Zara Anand (68-70) in tied-second place with Germany’s Verena Gimmy (68-70).

Pranavi Urs (72-67), produced a back-nine surge to shoot a 67 and was tied fourth with the 2024 Order of Merit leader Chiara Tamburlini (71-68) at a 5-under total of 139. In fact, both the day's best scores of 67 came from two Indians - Hitaashee and Pranavi.

Not too far behind was the first-round leader, Vani Kapoor (67-74), who despite things not going her way, hung in for a 74 to be 3-under in Tied-seventh place with last year’s joint runner-up Singaporean Shannon Tan (68-73) and England’s Alice Hewson (69-72) at a 3-under total of 141.

Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson (71-69) was sole sixth.

With four Indians in the Top-10, hopes of an Indian win after a nine-year gap are rather high.

Indian golfers held the spotlight right through the day as Hitaashee lit up the morning session, then it was Zara Anand and Pranavi Urs' turn to shine through in the fading evening light. Zara at one time even shared the lead with Hitaashee, before a double-bogey on the 17th pulled her back. Creditably, she didn't let that setback affect her as she closed her round with a birdie on the 18th to claw back to the 2nd place on the leaderboard.

A dozen Indians made the cut including Avani Prashanth (73-71) and Amandeep Drall (74-70) at Tied-14th, Durga Nittur (70-75) at Tied-18th, Ridhima Dilawari (75-72) at Tied-28th, Jahanvi Bakshi (75-73), the elder sister of Hitaashee, and Jasmine Shekar (75-73) at Tied-31st, Tvesa Malik (74-75) at Tied-39th and Diksha Dagar (78-72) at Tied-46.

A total of 70 players made the cut which was applied at eight-over. Some of the well-known names missing the cut were Gaurika Bishnoi, Sneha Singh and amateurs Mannat Brar and Saanvi Somu.

The bubbly Hitaashee, who will be joined in the final two rounds by her sister, Jahanvi, was thrilled to hold the lead in an LET event for the first time.

She said, “I am feeling good, this is my home course. My expectations are where it should be and I'm really happy with that.

Tags : Hitaashee Bakshi, Zara Anand, Indian Open, Hero, women's golf