Diksha Dagar finishes fifth at NSW Open Down Under

By Rahul Banerji

Diksha Dagar notched up her maiden top five placing at the Women’s New South Wales Open on Sunday with a 1-under 70 to finish on 6-under par 278 at Queanbeyan on Sunday.

The left-handed Dagar, who won a professional event while still an amateur last year has improved match on match to turn in her best performance in these past few weeks. Her four rounds this week were 72, 67, 69 and 70.

Amandeep Drall too recorded her best pro finish outside India with a tied 18^th placing with a 2-under 69 on Sunday to aggregate a 2-under 282. Astha Madan, the third Indian to make the cut this week shot 73 in the final round for a total of 287 and a shared 36^th finish, also her best on the Ladies European Tour.

Worthwhile trip

Dagar has had a successful trip to Australia in her maiden pro year so far. She was tied 30 at the ALPG qualifying tournament to gain conditional status and was then tied 12 at the Ballarat Icons Pro-Am.

She missed the cut at the Vic Open, was tied 29 at the Canberra Classic and third in the 18-hole Pro-Am at Moss Vale Club. Three of those events were also part of the Ladies European Tour and Dagar is now 30^th on the Order of Merit as the best placed Indian.

England’s Meghan MacLaren won the Women’s NSW Open presented for the second successive year after a final round of 2-under-par 69 for a three-stroke victory at the Queanbeyan Golf Club.

She finished on 12-under-par, three ahead of New Zealand’s Keh Munchin and Swede Lynn Carlsson. 

Lahiri in strife at Palmer Invitational

In Orlando, Florida, Anirban Lahiri ended with an 8-over 80 on the third day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational that saw him plummet to the bottom of the standings in 70^th place even as defending champion Rory McIlroy climbed to within one shot of the lead.

Lahiri, starting at one-under for 36 holes, was 7-over at the end and will need a strong finish going into the Players Championships next week at TPC Sawgrass.

Matt Fitzpatrick led a bunch of Europeans at the top of the leaderboard with a flawless 5-under 67, one ahead of McIlroy (66) going into the final round. Behind them was a threesome including England’s Matt Wallace (69), the 2018 Hero Indian Open winner.

Missed putts

Lahiri hit nine of the 14 fairways and 10 of the 18 greens, but missed putts everywhere like many others in the field.

McIlroy has never successfully defended any of his 22 victories worldwide but in the third round he birdied three of his last four holes for a 66, taking his place in the last flight for the third time in five events this year.

Fitzpatrick was at 9-under 207 while second day leaders Keegan Bradley (75) and Tommy Fleetwood (76) dropped to tied sixth and T11 respectively on a tough scoring day.

“There’s water around here, the greens are firm, the rough’s thick,” Fitzpatrick said. “Today someone was saying it’s a bit like a US Open, which I could totally see.

“It only takes a couple of water balls from the top five guys, a few dropped shots early and all of a sudden you sort of are not looking like you’re in a great position.”

Also read: Indian pro golfers in action worldwide, Lahiri fires it up in Florida