Sports News | Gritty Diksha Keeps Lead at Irish Open as Four Indians Make Cut
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. In-form Indian golfer Diksha Dagar continued her march in Europe as she fired a 3-under 69 in the second round to hold on to her sole lead at the Women's Irish Open.
Dublin (Ireland), Sep 2 (PTI) In-form Indian golfer Diksha Dagar continued her march in Europe as she fired a 3-under 69 in the second round to hold on to her sole lead at the Women's Irish Open.
Diksha produced a sensational finish with three birdies in the last four holes to add to her first round score of 7-under 65. She is currently 10-under and leads by one shot over three players -- Netherland's 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 making the cut included Vani Kapoor (73-70) in T-45, Ridhima Dilawari (72-72) in T-51 and Tvesa Malik (73-72) in T59.
Amandeep Drall (75-74) was the only Indian to miss the cut, which fell at 1-over.
Despite not getting off to the best of starts as she had a bogey on the first hole, Diksha hung in. She got the shots back on the fifth and sixth.
On the second nine, a bogey on the 14th set her back. But she made a strong finish with birdies on the 15th, 17th and 18th for a back nine of 2-under 35 and a total of 69.
"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," Diskha said.
"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," she added.
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 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 6-under 66. 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 3-under 69 on day two. 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 11th and 17th to have a total of nine-under-par.
France's Grechi also backed up her opening round of 6-under with a round of 3-under which included three bogeys and six birdies.
France's Anne-Lise Caudal sits in outright fifth place on 8-under-par after back-to-back rounds of 68.
(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)