Women's Golf Association of India

Diksha makes a great recovery to card 74 and lies T-33rd

Dundonald Links, Scotland, July 24: Diksha Dagar staged a superb recovery over the back nine as she rallied from being six-over through 10 holes to fire four birdies in the last eight holes of the ISPS Handa Scottish Open. She finally carded 2-over 74 to be Tied-33 at the end of the first round on a windy first day at Dundonald Links.

Her round of 74 on a course that gave away just 13 under par scores gave Diksha a fine chance to make the cut, which will fall after the second round. At the end of the first day, there were just seven even par rounds apart from 13 under par scores.

Diksha, who is supported by Hero, has had four Top-10s this season and is the best of the three Indians in the field. Avani Prashanth struggled to 8-over 80 and was T-116 alongside Hero Indian Open winner, Shannon Tan, while Pranavi Urs (84) shot one of the highest ever rounds on the Ladies European Tour and was T-138.

Korea’s Jenny Shin and Lauren Coughlin of US shared the lead with 6-under 66 each. Coughlin, who won the Aramco Championship in April, was in the afternoon wave in Scotland but joined Shin on six-under-par at the top of the leaderboard.

Korea’s A Lim Kim is in solo third place on five-under-par after her round of 67 which included three birdies on the trot on holes 10, 11 and 12.

Four players shared the fifth place at 3-under 69 and they included Esther Henseleit of Germany, Erika Hara of Japan, Miyu Yamashita of Japan and Anna Nordqvist of Sweden.

Nelly Korda of the US, one of the strongest this season, shot even par 72 as did Leona Maguire of Ireland.

Diksha was off to a disastrous start with three bogeys in first four holes on the first, second and then found her first birdie, That minor joy was short lived as she dropped a triple bogey on the tough Par-4 eighth hole. Diksha turned in five-over and immediately dropped another shot on the tenth to be six-over,

Then came the turnaround with birdies on the 11th, 14th and finally a birdie-birdie finish for a more respectable 74.

Avani opened with three bogeys and closed with six in a row on her last six holes. Her sole consolation of the day was a birdie on the ninth as she shot 80. Pranavi had a worse day as she had just one birdie, six bogeys, one triple bogey and one quadruple bogey.