Indian sports wrap, June 8: Anirban Lahiri leads heading into final round at LIV Golf Virginia

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Lahiri up 2 entering final round at LIV Golf Virginia

Pursuing his first individual win with LIV Golf, Anirban Lahiri of India played a bogey-free second round at 7-under 64 on Saturday and holds a two-shot lead at LIV Golf Virginia on Saturday in Gainesville, Va.

A runner-up four times with LIV Golf, Lahiri sank seven birdies and made a 39-foot par putt on No. 16, then finished strong with a par on No. 18 after landing in the rough. On the 18th, he had to get up and down from a distance of more than 100 yards.

“Yeah, those felt like birdies as well,” Lahiri said of his impressive finish to the day at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. “I think the first 15 holes was about as solid as I could have played. I missed a few putts and I still made quite a lot of birdies. Then 16, I was trying to hit like an in-between 9-iron and I tried to compress it a little bit too much, and everyone else saw what happened. It was nice to make that putt.”

Veterans Bubba Watson, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell—who are also chasing their first individual LIV Golf win—are at 9-under par entering Sunday’s final round, just two shots behind the leader.

On the team front, Lahiri and Bryson DeChambeau have the Crushers GC at 21 under par, one up on McDowell’s Smash GC squad and well ahead of the other foursomes.

-Reuters

Diksha stays within top 10 after third round

Indian golfer Diksha Dagar carded an even par 72 to hold her position within the top 10 after the third round of the Tenerife Women’s Open at Abama Golf.

Diksha was five-under for three days and is placed sole 9th in the standings. She is three shots behind the leader Sara Kouskova (69) at eighth-under.

The other Indian to make the cut in Tenerife, Avani Prashanth, played an even par third round and is now placed at 43rd on the leaderboard.

Diksha started her day with a birdie on the first hole before dropping shots on the sixth and eighth holes by the time she was hallway through the round.

On the back nine, Diksha picked up a shot on the 10th hole before dropping one back on the 13th and picking up one more on the 16th to make sure she is still placed in the Top-10.

Avani started her round with back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes and then dropped a double bogey on the 16th. On the front nine she dropped two more shots on the first hole with another double bogey before picking them back up on the third and sixth holes.

She would drop a shot immediately on the seventh and then birdie the eighth to close the day with a par score on a roller-coaster day.

-PTI