Indian sports wrap, May 9: Diksha set for landmark 100th start on LET

GOLF

Diksha set for landmark 100th start on LET

Diksha Dagar will become the first Indian woman golfer to play 100 events on the Ladies European Tour when she tees up at the Aramco Team Series Korea, her first appearance in the series.

Diksha, who turned pro in 2019 and won on LET in her first full season, has been a regular on LET since then.

Currently ninth on the LET Order of Merit, Diksha turned 23 in December. She is one of the three Indians to tee off at the New Korea Country Club. The other two Indians in the field are Pranavi Urs and Vani Kapoor.

Diksha will also lead the team of Czech Tereza Melecka and Korean Do Yeon Park, while Pranavi and Vani are in the team led by Singaporean Shannon Tan, who has already won once in her rookie season.

She was part of the winning team in the Aramco Team Series in London in 2021. That was the year when the series was played across five countries.

Diksha has finished in the Top-10 of the individual section only once. That first Top-10 came this year in Tampa Florida, where she was tied sixth.

Diksha, a lock-in for the Olympic Games in Paris, is ranked 147th in the world and the second best Indian after Aditi Ashok (53rd).

A gold medallist at the 2021 Deaflympics, Diksha is also a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2023.

“Representing India is the biggest honour one can have so I am looking forward to my second Olympic appearance,” said Diksha, who is the only golfer to have played at both the Summer Olympics (2021 Tokyo) and the Deaflympics (2017 and 2021).

Diksha is one of only two Indian women to have won on the LET and she has done it twice – once in Investec South African Women’s Open in 2019 and in Czech Ladies Open in 2023.

“For the present my focus is the LET, where I have won twice and I want to do better,” said Diksha, who is also aiming to get to the LPGA Tour in the United States.

Diksha, who won once in the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open and was T-3 at the Amundi German Masters and Hero Indian Open last year, was also third in the Order of Merit. She had nine individual Top-10 finishes and one more in the team event in Hong Kong.

This season she has had Top-10 finishes in Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco (9th) and in Tampa Florida (T-6). The busy part of the season is still ahead of her.

Vani has been around for some years but is still looking for her first win on the LET, as is Pranavi Urs, who is playing her first full season on the Tour.

– PTI