Aditi, Diksha stretched on Evian Championship opening day

By Rahul Banerji

Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar struggled to come to terms with the Evian Resort Golf Club course on the opening day of the Ladies European Tour’s Evian Championship in Evian-les-Bains, France, on Thursday.

While Aditi, now a Ladies PGA Tour regular, brought in a 2-over card of 73 in the $4.1 million event’s first day, event debutant Diksha was further down the field on 6-over 77.

Paula Creamer of the US lead the way on 7-under 64, a shot ahead of Koreans Inbee Park and Jin Young Ko, and American Brittany Altomare. World leader Sung Hyun Park of Korea was 5-under with three holes to go in her round at the time of writing.

Silver jubilee

With a quality field of the top 120 players from around the world, the 25^th edition of the Evian Championship is co-sanctioned by the LET and LPGA and one of five majors in women’s golf. One of two such events, it will be followed next week by the Women’s British Open.

Interestingly, Diksha Dagar has qualified for both majors on the European circuit this year. At 18, she is the youngest Indian of either gender to appear in a major.

On the day, Aditi looked well set to bring in a strong card having made the turn on 2-under 33. A double bogey on the par-4 13^th and two late dropped shots however dented her run and the 2016 Hero Women’s Indian Open winner will want to bring in a stronger showing on day two to make the weekend.

For her part, the left-handed Diksha who won the South African Women’s Open earlier this year, had a day to forget on the par-71 6,482-yard Evian Resort course.

Though she had an early birdie, a triple bogey interrupted Diksha’s momentum and she was to drop five shots against one birdie on the back nine.

Gupta coasts to five-shot win

In Faridabad, Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta shot a final round of 5-under-67 to set up a 5-stroke win in the Tata Steel PGTI Feeder Tour event at the Aravalli Golf Course.

It gave Gupta (70-64-67), who totaled 15-under-201 for the week, his 10^th title and a first win in three years.

Mumbai’s Anil Bajrang Mane (70-70-66) fired the day’s joint best of 6-under-66 to finish runner-up on 10-under-206. His second place finish propelled him into the lead in the Feeder Tour Order of Merit.

After two hot and humid days, Thursday provided ideal weather conditions for a round of golf as it was cool, overcast and low on humidity.

The seasoned Gupta led by four shots going into the final round and brought all his experience to the course on Thursday, making an eagle, four birdies and a bogey in his round of 67.

Untroubled progress

Harendra, playing without pressure, was untroubled through round three and managed to maintain the advantage he had built on Wednesday.

After a birdie on the third Gupta near drove the par-4 green on the eighth and chipped-in from 30 yards for an eagle-two. It was his third such gain in two days.

Gupta said later, “I just built on the momentum from yesterday. It’s been a terrific week. I made four eagles and four chip-ins this week. The second round of eight-under-64 was one of my best in recent times. It served as a huge confidence-booster.”

Mane, who was overnight T7, climbed to second courtesy his 66 that included seven birdies and a bogey. It was his third runner-up finish on the Feeder Tour.

Delhi’s Sachin Baisoya (72) took third place on 5-under-211.

Faridabad’s Abhinav Lohan (72) was tied fourth along with Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (66) and Pune’s Sagar Raghuvanshi (66) on 4-under-212.

Also read: Diksha Dagar finishes strongly at Thailand Chamionship