Vandana on a comeback trail

Overnight joint leader, Parnita Garewal of Chandigarh had a round of 77 and is one stroke behind Vandana. Delhi’s Urvashi Sethi who shared the top spot with Parnita, yesterday, could not find her rhythm today. She had a poor round of 83 to end seven strokes behind the leader at the third spot.

Vandana had a bad start dropping shots on the first and eighth but came back into the reckoning with an eagle on the ninth. She was on the green of the 425-yard ninth before she sank the ball with a none-too-difficult putt. She three-putted on the 10th and 13th and double-boggied on the 17th. However she shot two birdies before and after the 17th to score an impressive 75.

Parnita shot two birdies on the way out to be one over par at 37. Urvashi too started badly doing nothing right on the first nine but steadied her game vastly to come home with 159.

14-year-old Irina Brar of Chandigarh, playing with a handicap of seven, came up with a fine performance. After carding 84 yesterday, she came back strongly with an impressive round of 76 for an aggregate of 160.Nonita Lal Quereshi was another to come up with an improved performance shooting one birdie and seven pars. But erred repeatedly, doing the return trip in 43 for her 78.