Wellington, Feb 12 (IANS) India’s Guntas Kaur Sandhu carded a one-under 71 at the Royal Wellington Golf Club here on Thursday to emerge as the best Indian at tied 17th position after the opening round of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific. She opened the day with a bogey and was Tied-17th at the end of it.

Among the other Indians, Ananyaa Sood (74) was Tied 42nd, Zara Anand (79) was T-66, and Jia Kataria (81) was T-75.

Part of the four-member team sent by the Indian Golf Union (IGU), Guntas began on a modest note with a bogey on the first hole before sinking birdies on the third, eighth, and 12th holes. But a bogey on the 15th hole pegged her back. She trails the leader, Yunseo Yang of South Korea, by seven strokes.

The tournament is hosted by The R&A (Royal & Ancient, Scotland), the world governing body for the rules of golf, in association with the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC).

Korea’s Yunseo Yang produced a brilliant back-nine birdie barrage to set a blistering early pace. Two-under-par at the turn, the 18-year-old Korean turned on the style with a further six birdies on her inward journey to sign for a bogey-free eight-under-par 64 at Royal Wellington.

On an ideal day for scoring with light breezes and greens running at almost 11 on the stimpmeter, no fewer than 32 players from the 84-strong starting line-up shot par or better.

Alone in second place, just one shot off the lead, is Hong Kong, China’s Arianna Lau, with Korean Seojin Park two strokes further back in third.

Sharing fourth place on 68 are former US Women’s Amateur champion Rianne Malixi of the Philippines and Australian Jazy Roberts, winner of last week’s Australian Amateur Championship.

Guntas Kaur Sandhu, ranked 545th in the world, had a remarkable domestic season, winning four times on the IGU circuit, namely the Gujarat Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur, Eastern India Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur, Southern India Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur, and the Maharashtra Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur Golf Championships. She finished third in the 2025 IGU All India Ladies & Junior Girls Amateur Championship.

Speaking about her round, Guntas said: “Royal Wellington is a challenging parkland course. I attacked the flags from the start, but got mixed results today. I will draw inspiration from some of my good performances on the domestic IGU circuit tomorrow. Looking forward to a memorable outing here.”

–IANS

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