13thBeach Golf Links, Australia, Feb 5: Diksha Dagar will be the lone Indian at the 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open. Dagar, who started her pro career around this time in Australia last year, did get to play the event last year, too, but missed the cut.
Dagar, who completed 19 in December, has been paired with Yula Saso of the Philippines and Jiwon Jeon of Korea in the first round and they will tee off from the 10that the Beach course.
The Vic Open see 144 women and 144 men tee off at two courses – the Beach Course and the Creek course. The cut will be applied after 36 holes with 70 players going on for the third and final rounds.
The experience Dagar gained in Australia in last year included a fifth place finish at the NSW Open (co-sanctioned with Ladies European Tour) earned her a spot in the SA Women’s Open, which she won. That gained a full card on the Ladies European Tour. Dagar progressed well enough to gain spots on the AIG Women’s British Open and the Evian Championships, but once again missed the cuts. She also played and missed the cut at the Scottish Open, which was also co-sanctioned with LPGA.
In 2019 Dagar grew in stature as she played more. Through the year in 19 starts, Dagar missed the cuts only in the two Majors, the Scottish and Jordan Mixed Masters and made the cut in the last six events of year on LET.
Now she gets a chance to showcase her talent on the LPGA Tour. After making it into the main draw as the first reserve, she could gain further with a good showing this week and earn a spot into the Australian Women’s Open, for which she is currently a fourth reserve but is also scheduled to play the Monday qualifiers.
The defending champion at Vic Open is Celine Boutier of France, who won her maiden title last year by two strokes over Charlotte Thomas and Sarah Kemp after overcoming a two-shot deficit at the end of 54 holes.
Boutier went on to have three other top-10 finishes on LPGA and earn a career-best $760,430 and played the Solheim Cut for a flawless 4-0-0 record for the victorious Team Europe. She comes to Australia fresh off top-10 finishes at the season’s first two events.
Rolex Rankings No. 9 Minjee Lee will make her 2020 LPGA Tour debut this week at a course that is very dear to her heart. In 2014, Lee won the ISPS Handa Vic Open at 13th Beach Golf Links as a 17-year-old amateur and she added a second Vic Open title with a five-stroke win in 2018. The event was not co-sanctioned with LPGA at the time.
Lee had a win and four runner-up finishes on the LPGA Tour in 2019.
In a fun twist, Lee will tee it up this week with her younger brother Min Woo Lee, a second-year European Tour player, in the men’s competition.
This is the third time the Lees will play together at the Vic Open, joining 2017 and 2018, but that doesn’t mean that the sibling rivalry is any less intense.
Boutier will tee off No. 1 on the Beach Course at 12:40 p.m., playing with Olympic gold medalist Inbee Park and leading Australian Minjee Lee
Australia’s Hannah Green, who won the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, will tee off No. 1 on the Beach Course at 1 p.m., alongside fellow major champions Jeongeun Lee6 and So Yeon Ryu.
