Avani Prashanth top Indian in Australian Women’s Classic  

Avani Prashanth of India. 

Khel Today Bureau

Coffs Harbour, Australia: It was a tough day for the Indian duo in the opening round of the 2025 Australian Women’s Classic. Rookie Avani Prashanth with 2-over 72 was the best at Tied-55^th, while Pranavi Urs (73) and Diksha Dagar (74) were further behind in T-79^th and T-88^th places. They were also hit by lack of any practice rounds at a course which took a beating because of a cyclone.

Welsh rookie Darcey Harry, Sweden’s Moa Folke and Austria’s Emma Spitz are the early leaders after the trio opened with superb 6-under 64 each at Coffs Harbour Golf Club.

It has been a tough two weeks for the Ladies European Tour (LET) and WPGA Tour after the cancellation of last week’s event due to Cyclone Alfred in New South Wales and this week the tournament has been reduced to 54-holes. The 132 players in the field got their first look at the course in round one.

Avani, a multiple winner on the Hero Women’s Pro Tour, while being an amateur, has now turned pro, and in her first event as a pro in Morocco, she was T-16. She had two bogeys and no birdies on the Par-70 course.

Pranavi, who missed the cut in her first event of 2025 in Saudi, had two birdies against five bogeys, while Diksha, who was the runner-up in Morocco, had just one birdie against five bogeys in her 74.

But for Harry, Folke and Spitz, a lack of practice was no such hindrance as all three made scorching starts on Friday to lead by two shots.

Darcey Harry got the ball rolling as she lit up the putter converting four birdies to go out in 30 (-4). The 21-year-old, competing in only her second LET event, followed this up with back-to-back birdies at the 11th and 12th. Despite dropping a shot at the par-4 13th, Harry bounced back well with birdies on the 14th to post a 64 (-6).

Two groups behind, Folke led a charge of her own putting on a relentless display of fairway and green hitting. After being one-under par at the turn Folke capitalised on her great target play, rolling in birdies at the 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th and 15th to fire a bogey-free scorecard.

Spitz joined the leaders thanks to seven birdies including four in a row on her back-nine at the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. After missing the green short on her final hole, the par-4 9th, the Olympian was close to chipping in to take the outright lead.