Date:27/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/27/stories/2008082757232200.htm

Sport - Golf

Lavery Kumar in the van

Sports Reporter

Chennai: Lavery Kumar shot a three-over-par 75 to lead the open category of the gold division at the end of the first day of the Madras Ladies golf championships at the Cosmopolitan Club Golf Course here on Tuesday.

After five bogeys in the first 11 holes, Lavery pulled things back with birdies in the 14th and 16th. Shruti Khanna and Meher Atwal are at 77 and 78.

Top-seeded Meher began well, staying on par in the first five holes and getting a birdie on the sixth. She came close to birdies on the fourth and fifth, the latter with a chip from outside the green with the lob-wedge that nearly sneaked in.

After that she lost her rhythm, bogeying the par-5 seventh, and hitting a tree off the eighth tee on her way to a double bogey. She shot four more bogeys on the back nine, a putt for par on the twelfth spinning off the lip of the hole summing up her day.

The standings (after Day 1):

Gold Division (handicap 12 and below): Open (gross scores): 1. Lavery Kumar (Delhi) 75, 2. Shruti Khanna (Delhi) 77, 3. Meher Atwal (Delhi) 78. Handicap (nett scores): 1. Lavery Kumar 71, 2. Rupa Gurunath (Chennai) 74, 3. Akrathi Singh (Punjab), Shruti Khanna and Neha Tripathi (Calcutta) 75.

Silver Division (handicap 13-24): Open: 1. Arya M. Tikenekar (Pune) 86, 2. Premalatha Ramraj (Chennai) 87, 3. S. Lakshmi (Chennai) and Mita Gowande (Mumbai) 88. Handicap: 1. Arya Tikenekar and S. Lakshmi 70, 2. Premalatha Ramraj 72.

Bronze Division (handicap 24-36): Open: 1. Susie Kurien (Chennai) 105, Bela Phadke (Pune) 111. Handicap: 1. Susie Kurien 79, 2. Palomi Jain (Mumbai).