Aditi Ashok, Diksha Dagar set for Evian Championship tee-off

File photo of Aditi Ashok, who will be playing in her third Olympic Games in Paris next month.

By Rahul Banerji

Paris Olympics-bound Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar will start at the year’s fourth women’s major, the Evian Championship with the clock ticking down for the Summer Games,

For Thursday’s first round, Aditi is paired with Meghan Schofill of the US and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux from Tee 1, while Diksha opens alongside Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden and Jenny Shin of Korea off Tee 10.

India’s golf squad for Paris is scheduled to play a series of high-profile events over the next few weeks including two majors, the Olympics and the Women’s Scottish Open, a Ladies European Tour event co-sanctioned with the LPGA.

While Diksha is entered for seven events in eight weeks, LPGA regular Aditi will play the Evian and AIG Women’s Open, the Olympic Games and the Women’s Scottish Open.

Aditi, who finished a stroke shy of a medal at Tokyo will be making her third Olympics appearance while for Diksha it is a second Summer Games after Tokyo. This is her seventh start at the Evian Championship.

Last week, Diksha finished tied for 14^th at the Aramco Series London, and has been showing signs of coming back into the kind of form that saw her finish third on the LET Order of Merit.

Currently, 14^th in the rankings, she has had three top-10s, four top-20 and two other top-25 finishes this year.

Her father, Col Naren Dagar, who travels with Diksha, said, “Since her debut on LET and the two titles, she has had numerous close runs with more wins, including the Hero Women’s Indian Open.

Steady improvement

“We feel that she can win more and in bigger events. She is becoming better at her game and stronger mentally and physically.

“These few weeks make for an important stretch in European women’s golf,” Dagar added.

Aditi has not had a top-10 in 2024 with her best being a T17 at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She has missed only four cuts from 14 starts in the same phase.

In an event fact sheet, organisers said this would be the 11th edition of the championship since the event was elevated to major status and the 30^th overall making it the youngest of the five majors on the LPGA Tour.

The field this year has nine past winners, Celine Boutier (2023), Brooke Henderson (2022), Minjee Lee (2021), Jin Young Ko (2019), Angela Stanford (2018), Anna Nordqvist (2017), In Gee Chun (2016), Lydia Ko (2015) and Hyo Joo Kim (2014).

Of the group, 20-time LPGA winner Lydia Ko will make her 12th start at the Amundi Evian Championship where she also has seven top 10 finishes, the most in its short history. Four of the seven have been in the top five.

And with reference to the Olympics, as many as 41 of the 60 starters for Paris are in the field at Evian Resorts’ Champions Course.

Also read: Late slip costs Diksha a top-10 placing at Aramco London event