Nishna Patel was the only Indian to make the cut among the six players who have come for the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific golf at the Siam Country Club. The 16-year-old Mumbai golfer added 1-under 71 to her first round 72 to get to 1-under 143 for two rounds.
She was Tied for 17th as the other Indians Avani Prashanth (74-76), Mannat Brar (75-77), Kriti Chowhan (73-84), Sifat Sagoo (77-80) and Ceerat Kang (79-86) missed the cut. The cut fell at 4-over.
It was a disappointing week for Avani Prashanth, who has had a fine season including 10 international starts and a tied 12th place finish at the professional event, the Hero Women’s Indian Open on the Ladies European Tour.
The defending champion Mizuki Hashimoto (66) took the lead at 9-under. Hashimoto displayed a hot putter with a six-under par 66 round that gave her sole lead at the halfway stage. The 20-year-old from Miyagi showed her intent from the very first hole, with a 70-footer birdie. She needed just 27 putts to go around and made seven birdies and a solitary bogey.
Hashimoto is a second-year student at the famous Tohoku Fukushi University, whose products include Hideki Matsuyama and Takumi Kanaya. She moved to nine-under par 135 total, one ahead of Korea’s Jiyoo Lim. The 17-year-old added a second straight round of four-under par 68.
Chinese Taipei’s Ting-Hsuan Huang (69) was alone in third place at six-under par 138, followed by a three-way tie for fourth place.
Nishna, who missed the cut last year at the same tournament in Abu Dhabi, had a good start with a par on the tenth that was followed by birdies on 11th and the 13th as she rose up the leaderboard. Back-to-back bogeys on 14th and 15th on the tricky greens at the Waterside course of the Siam Country Club, pulled her back.
Nishna, who had her brother Ronav as her caddie, plays at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club, showed great mental strength in hot and humid conditions. She also showed she had learnt from the experience of the World Amateur Team Championship and the Women’s Amateur Championship. After her bogeys, she had ten pars in a row from the 16th to the seventh and then birdied the Par-4 eighth and finished with a par on ninth, her closing hole.
Indian scores T-17 Nishna Patel (72-71); MC: Avani Prashanth (74-76), Mannat Brar (75-77), Kriti Chowhan (73-84), Sifat Sagoo (77-80), Ceerat Kang (79-86)
