Austrian Christine Wolf holds a four-stroke lead at the Hero Women’s Indian Open after firing a second successive 68 in scorching 39C temperatures in Gurugram on Friday.

 

 

At eight-under, Wolf is four clear of Thailand’s Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras, who carded a level par 72 on the Gary Player Course at DLF Golf and Country Club.

 

 

 

 

The Thai player was one back before she twice found the water on the par-5 eighth, her penultimate hole, running up a triple bogey eight, but she recovered her nerve to birdie her last hole.

 

First round leader Tonje Daffinrud from Norway sits in solo third position on three-under after carding a 75.

 

 

Fellow Norwegian Marianne Skarpnord, Manon Mollé from France and England’s Ellie Givens share fourth on two-under-par, with local player Tvesa Malik the leading Indian in a four-way share of seventh place on one-under-par, alongside Nicole Broch Larsen, Celine Boutier and Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakhul.

 

 

 

 

Wolf carded the best score of the day. The 29-year-old from Innsbruck three-putted her first hole, but then made seven birdies in a nine-hole stretch from the fifth to the 13th holes to reach 10-under-par.

 

She dropped two shots coming in, after hitting her approach shot left of the 14th green, before taking another three-putt bogey on the difficult 17th.

 

 

 

 

Her seven birdies included a tap-in on No 8 and Wolf said: “I hit a lot of greens and hit my iron shots were close, so I gave myself a lot of chances and I really enjoyed it out there. I made a lot of birdies and tried to keep high numbers off the score card. I hit every fairway today. It suits my eye and it’s just fantastic when you walk around here: it’s beautiful.”

 

India has proved a happy hunting ground for Wolf, who held a four-way share of the lead after the first round at DLF in 2016, ending in a tie for 11th position. She also finished 20th in 2015.