Dubai, Nov 5: Diksha Dagar rode a roller coaster on way to a 3-under 69 on the second day to move up smartly on the leaderboard as she is now even par for 36 holes in the Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic on Thursday. Diksha, winner of the 2018 Women’s South African Open, is now placed T-17, while half the field in the ‘Moonlight Wave’ under the floodlights was still on the course. Also improving on the second day was Aditi Ashok, who was 3-under through eight holes to get to even par for the tournament and she has 10 more holes to play.
Both Diksha and Aditi, are now T-17, up from T-29 after the first round.
Among the other Indians, Tvesa Malik had also finished her second round with another card of 75 and was now 6-over and T-41st. Astha Madan, who was 5-over through seven holes in the second round, had slipped o T-48th.
Overnight leader Caroline Hedwall maintained her lead as she added 70 to her first 65 and was now 9-under and one shot clear of Meghan MacLaren (69-67) and LPGA star Minjee Lee (72-65) found her form after a modest 72 in the first round. She shot the best round in the morning with a 7-under 65.
Diksha had a roller coaster of a round as she started on the 14th in a tournament which features two halves getting off to a start at the same time but from different tees along with amateurs.
Diksha birdied the 16th but gave away a double bogey on 17th and another bogey followed on second, which put her at 2-over through seven holes. She then had three birdies in a row from third to fifth followed by back-to-back bogeys on seventh and eighth. She got her rhythm back as she birdied four in a row ninth to 12th and ended with a par on the 13th for a day’s work of 69.
Aditi Ashok, starting from the 14th in the evening, birdied 17th, 18th and the third.
The world’s first day-night Tour event has an interesting format which sees the professionals pair up with a team of amateurs and play continues till late into the evening under the lights with the Dubai skyline in the background,
Celine Boutier (67-71) lies fourth at 6-under, while former World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who was 4-under on the first day is 1-under through eight holes in the second round. Also at 5-under are Nuria Iturrioz, who is 2-under through seven holes in second round and Laura Fuenstueck is par through six holes in second round.
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All four Indian girls, Aditi, Diksha, Tvesa and Astha card 3-over 75, lies 29th in Dubai
