Galgorm, (Northern Ireland), Aug 17 (PTI) Oozing confidence following the high of a career-best finish at the AIG Women's Open, Indian golfer Diksha Dagar will look for another solid outing when she tees off at the HANDA World Invitational starting this week.

Diksha, who finished T-21 at the Women's Open and broke into the Top-200 in the world, is now ranked 176th.

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Diksha, who has one win to her name this season at the Czech Ladies Open, lies fifth on the LET Order of Merit.

Diksha is the lone Indian in the women's section here, while Manu Gandas is sole representative in the men's event.

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Diksha plays her first round with Muni He of China and Welsh golfer, Lea Anne Bramwell here.

The third edition of the tournament, which is tri-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, LPGA Tour and LET, sees two separate 72-hole stroke play tournaments for men and women with two separate prize funds of USD 1,500,000.

For the first two rounds, all players will play one round at Galgorm and one round at Castlerock Golf Club. The men and women will play in alternate groups on both courses.

In rounds three and four, the men and women golfers will again play in separate groups in score order (within the separate tournaments) at Galgorm only.

This week there are two cuts with the first being to the top 60 professionals and ties after 36 holes, and another cut to the top 35 players and ties after 54 holes.

A year ago in the 2022 edition, Diksha made the second round cut, but then exited as she ended T-56 and in 2021 she missed the second round cut.

This season Diksha has been in great form with one win and three others Top-10 finishes. She also made her first cut in a Major and her T-21 finish was the best by an Indian woman at a Major.

The field includes Ana Pelaez Trivino, who is second on the LET Order of Merit, and will be looking at closing the gap with Celine Boutier.

Another player to look out for will be Olivia Cowan, who broke through last year at the Hero Women's Indian Open and has racked up seven Top-10 finishes including T-9 at the Women's Open last week.

Galgorm once again returns as one of the venues for this week with the parklands layout nestled in the heart of the historic Galgorm estate. The second course this year is Castlerock Golf Club, which is located on the north coast and will provide a test of Links Golf.

There is a strong home contingent this week with three players from Northern Ireland in LPGA Tour member Stephanie Meadow, LET member Olivia Mehaffey and Jessica Ross, who received an invite.

Two-time LPGA Tour winner and Solheim Cup star Leona Maguire, who is from Cavan in Ireland, is also in the field.

Maguire finished in a tie for 10th in last year's tournament and will be hoping to improve upon that this week.

With the tournament being a co-sanctioned event with the LPGA, there are more points on offer in the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol.

This week the winner would receive 750 points on the Race to Costa Del Sol compared to 500 points at a standard LET event.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)