Diksha_Dagar
Sep 2: In-form Diksha Dagar continued her march in Europe as she held on to her sole lead at the halfway mark in the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Dromoland Castle. Diksha’s performance came in front of fairly large crowds, who came to the course on the second day.
Diksha produced a sensational finish with three birdies in last four holes to add 3-under 69 to her first round 7-under 65 and reached double digits under par at 10-under and led by one over three players, Dutch player Anne Van Dam (69-66), Indian-American Gurleen Kaur (66-69) and Italian Emma Grechi (66-69).
Diksha led as many as four Indians into the weekend rounds. The others were Vani Kapoor (73-70) in T-45, Ridhima Dilawari (72-72) in T-51 and Tvesa Malik (73-72) in T-59. Amandeep Drall was the only Indian to miss the cut with 75-74.
The cut fell at 1-over with 70 players making it through to the final two days of the competition at Dromoland Castle.
Despite not getting off to the best of starts as she had a bogey on the first hole, Diksha hung in with a lot of grit. She got the shots back on the fifth and sixth and turned in 1-under 34 as against 4-under on the first day.
On the second nine, a bogey on 14 set her back and she had lost the lead. Then came the strong finish with birdies on the 15th, 17th and 18th for a back nine of 2-under 35 and a total of 69.
She admitted, “Today, I struggled a little bit because I played very well yesterday. I handled it very well and finished with a respectable score of three-under.
“On the 17th hole I had a long birdie putt, I thought wow yes because I was feeling a little bad on 16 as I missed a birdie putt. I was targeting a respectable score of two or three-under.
“After making a birdie on 17, I had a fist pump and it made me feel confident and I attacked the flag on 18 and I had a very good putt left. The weekend is going to be a very good experience, I’m getting used to it and I’m going to feel good and stay focused.”
Diksha has had a great season with one win and five Top-10s and a career-best finish at the Women’s Open for the best result by an Indian at a Major at T-21. She is lying fifth on the LET’s Race to Costa Del Sol, which is the Order of Merit. The top four from the Merit list will get a LPGA card and the next 10 get a spot in the final stage of LPGA Q-School.
Anne Van Dam, the five-time LET winner, had an excellent round of 66 (-6) on the second day. She had one bogey and seven birdies on her scorecard.
LET rookie Kaur, whose parents are of Indian origin, shot a 66 on the opening day and followed that up with a 69 (-3) on day two in Ireland. She made a bogey on the fourth but bounced back with a birdie on the fifth before another dropped shot on the eighth.
However, a hole-out eagle on the ninth saw Kaur regain momentum and she rolled in birdies on 11 and 17 to have a total of nine-under-par.
France’s Grechi also backed up her opening round of six-under with a round of three-under which included three bogeys and six birdies. France’s Anne-Lise Caudal sits in outright fifth place on eight-under-par after back-to-back rounds of 68 at Dromoland Castle.
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Diksha grabs lead in Irish Open, Indian-American Gurleen lies second
