Irish open: Diksha stays ahead of chasing pack

Dublin, September 2

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).

Vani Kapoor (73-70) was T-45, Ridhima Dilawari (72-72) T-51 and Tvesa Malik (73-72) T-59, while Amandeep Drall (75-74) missed the cut.

Despite not getting off to the best of starts as she had a bogey on the first hole, Diksha hung in. She got the shot back on the fifth before making another birdie on the sixth. A bogey on the 14th set her back but she made a strong finish with birdies on the 15th, 17th and 18th.

“Today, I struggled a little bit because I played very well yesterday. I handled it very well and finished with a respectable score,” Diskha said. “On the 17th hole, I made a long birdie putt. I thought ‘wow yes’ because I was feeling a little bad after the 16th as I missed a birdie putt. The birdie on 17 made me feel confident and I attacked the flag on 18 and I had a very good putt left,” she added.

Diksha is currently fifth on the Ladies European Tour’s Race to Costa Del Sol, which is the Order of Merit. The top four from the list will get an

LPGA card and the next 10 a spot in the final stage of LPGA Q-School.

LET rookie Gurleen, whose parents are of Indian origin, shot a 3-under. 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 for an eagle on the ninth saw Gurleen regain momentum and she rolled in birdies on 11 and 17 to get to a total of 9-under.