Cape Town, April 11 : Avani Prashanth placed herself in the top 10 after a bogey-free 4-under 68 in the opening round at the SA Women's Open golf tournament. Avani had two birdies on either side of the Par-72 course and trailed the leaders, France's Perrine Delacour and Germany's Aline Krauter, by three shots at Erinvale Country & Golf Estate.

Another Indian, Tvesa Malik, a winner on the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour and Sunshine Ladies Tour, had a great start with three birdies in the first three holes. She then dropped a double bogey but steadied herself to pick one more birdie on the back nine on the 15th, parred the others for a 2-under 70, and was Tied-32nd.

Three other Indians, Diksha Dagar, Pranavi Urs, and Tvesa Malik, shot even par 72 each to be 68th.

Avani birdied the third and the fifth and then added two more on the 11th and the 17th as she played superbly. She found 13 of the 14 fairways and 17 of the 18 greens. She needed 32 putts, and some putts missed narrowly, but the overall game looked very good.

Delacour carded a bogey-free round with an eagle on the third hole to make it a solid start. The 31-year-old, who plays on both the LPGA and LET, kept the momentum going with a birdie on the next hole and went on to add four more to her scorecard. She captured her first LET title at the 2024 Dormy Open Helsingborg in Sweden and will be aiming to add a second to her name this week.

Germany's Aline Krauter dropped her only shot of the day to finish seven-under-par (65) in sunny and still conditions. She had eight birdies across the front and back nine, so she kept consistent throughout the 18 holes. Krauter is joined by her Mum and Dad this week. Krauter's lone LET win came in India at the 2023 Hero Women's Indian Open.

The tight leaderboard had three players in a share of third place, including Namibia's Bonita Bredenhann, Czech Sara Kouskova, and France's Lucie Malchirand, on six-under-par (66). There was a hole-in-one on 14 from Bredenhann.

/IANS