Gurugram, October 7: Pranavi Urs, the in-form player on the domestic Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, is the latest addition to the star-studded line-up at the Hero Women’s Indian Open 2022.
A change in dates of the Stage 2 of the LPGA Tour Qualifying School Stage has allowed Pranavi to play in her National Open, the lone Ladies European Tour event in the region.
The US$400,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open will be held at the DLF Golf and Country Club from Oct 20-23, 2022.
The 19-year-old Mysuru golfer, Pranavi has won five times in 13 legs of the domestic Tour. She also went to Stage 1 of the LPGA Tour Qualifying School Stage and qualified for the next stage.
The opportunity to play at the HWIO22 is almost a godsend for Pranavi, who will make her maiden start as a pro at the event where she has earlier participated as an amateur. She was thrilled as she said, “I am looking forward to playing the event.”
Hurricane Ian, which wreaked havoc in and around the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Florida, damaged the course badly and forced the LPGA to shift the dates by month from October 16-19 to November 17-20, 2022.
No sooner did she get the message on the change of dates, Pranavi got in touch with Hero MotoCorp and requested to be put on the entry list, the deadline date for which closed last week.
Pranavi will be part of the solid Indian challenge that will include the 2016 Hero Indian Open Champion, Aditi Ashok; the 2019 South African Women’s Open winner, Diksha Dagar; Tvesa Malik, Vani Kapoor and Amandeep Drall among others.
At the start of 2020, Pranavi won in two successive weeks, first as an amateur and then as a professional in the following start. She was however hit by an injury last year. She resumed action in terrific form and has won five times and finished second or has shared the runner-up spot four more times to lead the Hero Order of Merit by a huge margin.
The Hero Women’s Indian Open is the third to last event of the LET season, which means the players will get one of their last chances to get into the final two events of 2023, the Aramco Team Series – Jeddah and the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de Espana in Spain or secure their card for 2023 on the Ladies European Tour.
The event will see a strong field for this year’s edition which will be led by Christine Wolf, who won the event in 2019, when it was last held. She will be back to defend her title. The other winners of the event in the field include Camille Chevalier (2017), Aditi Ashok (2016) and Caroline Hedwall (2011).
The Hero Women’s Indian Open started in 2007 and has been held each year, barring 2020 and 2021 because of Covid.
