Tvesa Malik continued her great summer run putting together a 3-under 68 in the first round of the Gant Ladies Open at Aura Golf. The Indian, who has been playing consistent, but missed out on an Olympic berth, had three birdies in a four-hole stretch between the 14th and 17th and lies tied-second and two shots behind Finland’s Ursula Wikstrom (66).

Among the other Indians, Diksha Dagar, part of the winning team at the Aramco Ladies Open in London last week, was T-18 with 72, while Vani Kapoor (77) was T-74 and Astha Madan (79) was T-95th.

Tvesa, 25, visiting Finland for the first time, got off to a pleasing start. She said “The greens are rolling really pure, so I was excited to play such great greens. It is my first time here in Finland and I am enjoying it,” she said. “The weather is very similar to those back home, so I’m feeling quite at home with that. I had four birdies today, I made some good putts coming in in the last few holes. The greens are rolling quite good, and it was important to make a few of them.”

Tvesa also said, “I would like to get better than my career-best of T-6 at the 209 Hero Indian Open and Jabra Ladies Open this year, so there is a lot of incentive to do that.”

Wikstrom, who was out in the first group of the day, starting on the 10th tee and was pleased to have spectators back – particularly in her homeland. She carded a round of five-under-par which included seven birdies and two bogeys to lead.

Argentina’s Magdalena Simmermacher and India’s Tvesa Malik both sit two strokes behind the leader on three-under-par.

Four players are tied for fourth place on two-under-par, including 2021 Race to Costa del Sol leader Atthaya Thitikul, Spain’s Noemi Jimenez Martin and Harang Lee, and Austria’s Christine Wolf.

Finland’s Leena Makkonen sits in solo eighth place on one-under-par, while there are nine players level par for the tournament including five Finns.

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