PATTAYA: India’s top amateur star Avani Prashanth got off to a good start with a 4-under 68 that put her in tied fourth place after the first round of the 2024 Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific.
She is one shot behind three players, Thai duo of defending champion Eila Galitsky, her teammate Novaporn Soontreeyapas, who had a hole-in-one and Taiwan’s Chen-Wei Wu. They shot 5-under 67 each.
India is fielding a six-member team. While Avani was the leading Indian, two others, who came close to even par score were Vidhatri Urs and Saanvi Somu, who shot 1-over 73 each. They were Tied 39th.
The other scores were disappointing. Keerthana Rajeev Nair (81) and Heena Kang (81) were T-84 and Mannat Brar (82) was 86th.
Avani was tied for fourth place with Thailand’s Pimpisa Rubrong, Amy Im of New Zealand and China’s Yahui Xhang. They all shot 68 each.
Avani, the winner of the Queen Sirikit Cup individuals last year, started from the back nine with a bogey on Par-5 10th hole but later made a good recovery. She had six birdies and two bogeys in her round at the challenging Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Thailand. Avani birdied three times between the 13th and the 16th.
Avani was happy with her round and said: "I definitely am. The way I started, I was quite confused about how the day was going to go. But then, you know, I took control of my full round by the time I was on the 13th, and that really put things in place. I'm so glad it turned out how it did.
"I put myself in good positions from there on and I set myself up for a birdie on nearly every hole from there. The ones that dropped, dropped, and the ones that didn't, I'll probably get them tomorrow."