CHRISTCHURCH: India's Zara Anand grabbed a share of the lead at the 44th Queen Sirikit Cup at the Par-72 Clearwater Golf Club.
Zara shot 73 and shared the lead with Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Wu, the reigning Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific champion, and Japan’s Aina Fujimoto.
The Indian Golf Union brought Zara into the team, following the withdrawal of 2023 winner Avani Prashanth, who is playing in the US.
The players faced icy conditions in the morning and played was also delayed for a while due to frost. Scoring was tough and no player recorded a score of better than 73.
Last year India’s Avani Prashanth became the first Indian to win individual honours at the Queen Sirikit Cup in Manila.
The three leaders are one shot ahead of four others, Shihyun Kim of Korea, Chinese Taipei’s Ping-Hua Hsieh, Kiwi Eunseo Choi and Australian Sarah Hammett, who all carded 74 each.
While Zara was on top, Vidhatri Urs (79) was T-20th and Heena Kang (85) was T-32, as the conditions were icy to begin with play being delayed by half an hour due to frost.
In team standings, India was sixth, as Chinese Taipei led with a three-over-total for two best scores from team of three. They were three shots clear of the host nation, New Zealand, and the pre-tournament favourites, Korea.
Australia and Japan sit a further shot behind, with India in solo sixth on six-over.
Zara, runner-up at the All India Ladies Amateur, and a third-place finisher at the Women’s Pro Golf Tour event, dropped a shot on the Par-3 fourth, but recovered that shot with a birdie on the Par-3 ninth. On the back nine, back-to-back bogeys pushed her back but she made up one shot with a birdie on the Par-4 closing 18th for a 73.
Chun-Wei had three birdies and four bogeys in the middle of the round between the eighth and the 13th holes, while Fujimoto also had three birdies against four bogeys.