The Sports-India Community

Smriti Mehra, perhaps the first Indian lady to play in the LPGA, is back on the LPGA tour this year.  She played in the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic but did not make the cut.  She shot 77 and 78 on the first two days.

Smriti Mehra made her debut in LPGA in 1997.

At the Wegmans Rochester LPGA Smriti Mehra had two poor rounds of 78 and 76 (plus 10) for a total score of 154. Today she double bogeyed the 3rd hole and bogeyed the 5th, 6th, 10th, 13th and 16th holes but birdied the 11th hole. It does not look like she will make the cut.

Smriti Mehra's name is in the entry list of the BMO Financial Group Canadian Women's Open from July 10-13, 2003 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Smriti Mehra played in the BMO Financial Group Canadian Women's Open but had a pretty bad first day. Her score of 84 (12 over par) put her at the 144th place. I hope she has a better second day when she tees off at 1:50 pm (local time in Vancouver, Canada).

Smriti's second day did not go well also and she finished with a score of 80. Her two day score of 164 placed her in last place and she failed to make the cut.

Smriti Mehra's name is in the entry list of Sybase Big Apple Classic at New Rochelle, New York from July 17-20, 2003. I hope she does better than what she did at the Canadian Open last week.

Smriti Mehra's score at the end of the first day of Wachovia LPGA Classic was 77. She birdied the 13th hole but had bogeys on the 1st, 6th 10th, 12th, 14th and 16th holes. The leader fired a 6 below par score of 66.

Smriti shot a score of 75 on the second day for a two day total of 152 (8 over par). She is tied for 119th spot. The leader is at minus 10.

Smriti will be playing on Friday August 5th in the LPGA tournament in my home town. Her tee time on Friday is at 8 a.m. and that will exclude me from going to see her on the first day. I will try to see her on Saturday.

She is paired on the first day with a local promosing young player Stacy Prammanasudh and should get some fans out there to see her.

However, the crowd will follow Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak and Juli Inkster who will tee off at 12:40 pm on Friday. Annika won this tournament last year when it was sponsored by Williams Company.

BSharma,
If you get a chance to speak to her, give her best wishes from this forum. Let her know that there are people following her game.

Smriti had 3 bogeys (1st, 7th and 11th holes) and one birdey (3rd hole) to finish the first day with a score of two above par 72. Her playing partner Stacy Prammanasudh had one under par round of 69 while the other partner Charlotta Sorenstam shot a 75.

I will check the tee times for Saturday and will try to get down to the golf club and cheer Smriti and give her the best wishes from the members of this forum.

Smriti is placed T44 after first round. I came to know about Smriti from this forum only. Its a big achievement for her to play Golf at this level. I'm surprised why she is not covered in Indian press.

Well we have a lot of people with a variety of interests on the forum which helps a lot. Indian newspapers, until recently, were only interested in cricket on the sports pages. Who really is interested in covering a Indian woman in golf even if it on the LPGA. Not much LPGA coverage in the main stream papers in N.America either compared to the mens games so it wouldn't be much different in India. We do get some newspaper types off and on in the forums so maybe she manages to get coverage sooner or later.

Yes, she deserves a lot more coverage that she has been getting. Actually there are a few newspaper scribes who are quite interested in Golf from what I have seen. I don't know why they have not written more on her.

Jay

Smriti had a pretty good second day to make the cut but she faltered on the last day. Her scores of 72, 72 and 76 on a par 70 course got her a 74th place.

According to Smriti Mehra's bio she is a 31 year old golfer from Calcutta and started playing golf at the age of 14 years. She was the 1993 Malaysian National champion and the 1994 Indian National Stroke Play and Match Play champion. She turned professional in 1994 and joined the LPGA in 1997.