Gurgaon, Oct 9 (IANS): Gaurika Bishnoi stitched together a string of four birdies on the back nine to lead second-placed veteran Gauri Monga by one stroke on the opening day of the Usha Northern India Ladies golf event played at the Classic Golf Course here Wednesday.

Gaurika, who is based in Gurgaon and plays all her golf at the city’s more popular DLF Golf and Country Club, capped a stellar performance on the day with a total of five birdies to card a two under par 70. Gauri finished with a score of one under 71, just one stroke behind, but carded just one bogey to Gaurika’s three to certainly be the most consistent golfer on show. She also had two birdies on the day.

Gaurika and Gauri are being chased by a closely grouped and not more than eight strokes separate the top 10 on the leaderboard. The two however, were the only ones to card a sub-par round on the day.

Pre-tournament favourite Gurbani Singh, who won the Chandigarh leg last week, was lying joint sixth with a score of four over 76, while Bangalore based Aditi Ashok, finished the day one ahead of Gurbani to lie fifth with a score of three over 75. Gurbani is the current leader of the IGU Ladies Tour Order of Merit list, while Aditi is lying second on the same list.

Ridhima Dilawari and Tvesa Malik who were lying joint third (73), and Astha Madan and Seher Atwal who were lying joint eighth (78), respectively.