ARVIDSSON AND MEYSSONNIER SHARE LEAD AT MIDWAY MARK ON DAY TWO

V Krishnaswamy @Swinging_Swamy

Sweden’s Elin Arvidsson and Anais Meyssonnier of France share the lead on -6 as we head into the second half of their rounds on the second day of the Hero Women’s Indian Open.

Two early birdies on holes 11 and 13 – after starting on the tenth – saw Arvidsson move into a share of the lead after an opening round of 68 (-4) on Thursday, while Meyssonnier had just a a birdie and bogey apiece to continue where she finished the first round on six-under par.

It was day of mixed luck for the local stars at DLF Golf and Country Club, as Amandeep Drall, the best placed Indian after the first round in T3 on -5, played hide and seek with birdies and bogeys and is now in a share of fourth at the halfway stage.

After a bogey-free opening round, Drall had four birdies and the same number of bogeys in a roller-coaster of a round, with her level-par round of 72 seeing her in T4 alongside the 2011 champion Caroline Hedwall (71) and Noora Komulainen (72). They are all at 5-under.

Meghan MacLaren of England, who is having a fine season with one win in Australia and two runner-up finishes in Italy and France, had the best round of the morning at three-under on a day when the tricky pins meant scoring was harder to come by than on day one.

MacLaren – who shot 72 in the first round, is now 3-under and tied for seventh alongside India’s Aditi Ashok (70-71) and Luna Sobron Galmes of Spain (69-72) – had five birdies against two bogeys, and rose to T7 with the afternoon wave to come.

The English star has often performed well at the Hero Women’s Indian Open, with a third-place finish in 2019 and T9 in 2017 at the same event, and picked up birdies on the fourth, seventh, ninth, 12^th and 17^th but also dropped shots on third and fifth.

The experienced Wessberg, who had a stunning 7-under first round at the DLF Golf and Country Club, had a good birdie to begin on the tenth but went through a nightmarish stretch of four holes from 11^th to 14^th as she dropped three shots.

Two successive birdies saw her heading towards the turn back at level-par and in a share of the lead, only for a double-bogey on the 18th to see her drop down the leaderboard.

Amandeep, who logged her first LET Top-10 at Tied-7^th in VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open this year, said, “It was very similar to yesterday. Nothing good or bad. I just played to a couple of wrong places and this course is such that if you hit in the wrong places, you end up losing a shot….