By Rahul Banerji
Two-time Ladies European Tour winner Diksha Dagar continued her impressive 2023 season with a shared sixth-place finish at the ISPS Handa World Invitational Presented by AVIV Clinics on Sunday.
The wiry left-hander produced a closing 67 to total 5 under par 285 at the Galgorn course in Northern Ireland.
In the parallel men’s segment of the tournament, Manu Gandas finished in a tie for 20th place after being in the top five at one point.
The innovative event was tri-sanctioned by the DP World (European) Tour, the LPGA and the LET with men’s and women’s tournaments played simultaneously for equal prize funds of $1.5 million.
Diksha had rounds of 71-74-72-67, and her run really caught fire on the final day as she sank eight birdies against three dropped shots at the event won by US teenager Alexa Panos on her 19th birthday.
Aggressive approach
“Yesterday I could have done better and because of yesterday’s experience I played aggressively today,” Diksha said later.
“One club extra because of yesterday’s weather. I feel so excited. I wanted to do it and I want to catch it and I wanted to make it a little bit hard for the leaders as well.”
LPGA rookie Panos was in a three-way tie for first on 8 under 281 along with Esther Hensleit of Germany and England’s Gabriella Cowley but prevailed on the third tie-break hole tap in birdie putt against Cowley,
“I’ve kind of been saying that I really wanted to win this event because it’s on my birthday,” she said later on the LET website.
“My best friend can contest it’s been for like two months. It feels so surreal that it’s happened. It’s been a little bit crazy because I didn’t have my clothes and clubs earlier in the week, but it’s all worth it.
“It just feels so surreal right now to have my dad on the bag as well. I can’t actually process that that just happened.”
Men’s winner
England’s Dan Brown (65-66-67-69) won the parallel men’s event with a 15 under par 266 aggregate, five shots ahead of countryman Alex Fitzpatrick.
The result also strengthened Diksha’s fifth place in the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol.
France’s Celine Boutier leads the LET’s Order of Merit with 1,725.38 points, Ana Peláez Trivino of Spain is second (1,487.20) and Aditi Ashok is third (1,309.19).
Linn Grant is fourth with 1,276.28 points and Diksha has reduced the gap to the Swede and now has 1,237.34 points with Czechia’s Klara Davidson Spilkova in sixth (10,66.46).
At one point, Diksha had climbed as high as third on the leaderboard before a combination of dropped shots and being overtaken gave her an eventual sixth place.
It was Diksha’s fifth top-10 finish of the season and she needed to survive two cuts at the invitational event in Northern Ireland.
Also read: Diksha Dagar scores best finish in majors, T21 at Women’s Open
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