Diksha Dagar takes the lead from Tvesa Malik at DLF

By Rahul Banerji

South African Women’s Open winner and Ladies European Tour regular Diksha Dagar plundered the back nine with four birdies against one bogey to take the lead in the 13th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF course in Gurgaon on Thursday.

Overnight leader Tvesa Malik – ahead by four shots – had a disappointing day in the second round on the Gary Player layout in the DLF Golf & Country Club and trailed the leader by two shots.

Diksha, who flew in from Europe for the event, bettered her first round 73 with a 4-under 68 for a 3-under total of 141.

Tvesa on the other hand fell to 1-under 143 as she went 3-over 75, which had just one birdie against four bogeys. As of now only Diksha and Tvesa are sub-par and the former is well placed going into the final round. 

Diksha’s only win on the Hero WPG Tour came as an amateur in the last event of the 2017 season. 

Comfortable advantage

For her part, Tvesa sits three shots ahead of Gursimar Badwal (73) and Gaurika Bishnoi (74) in tied third place.

Gursimar had three birdies on the front nine against one bogey, but three bogeys on the back nine dented her card.

Gaurika had two birdies against four bogeys, three of which were on the front nine.

Three-time winner this season, Ridhima Dilawari, has had a low-key run since her last win in the ninth leg. Since then she has a best of T7 and will want to do better here.

Vani Kapoor (76) and Gurjot Badwal (77) were tied seventh, while Siddhi Kapoor (79) and Gauri Karhade (82) were tied ninth.

Sneha Sharan was the leading amateur at T11 alongside Amandeep Drall.

Final round tee times

7:30 am: Oviya Reddi 177, Ananya Datar 166, Afshan Fatima 162

7:40 am: Khushi Hooda (A) 161, Khushi Khanijau 161, Shriya Vivek 160

7:50 am: Jahanvi Bakshi (A) 160, Asmitha Sathish (A) 159, Ishvari Prasanna 158

8 am: Sneha Sharan (A) 157, Amandeep Drall 157, Gauri Karhade 155

8:10 am: Siddhi Kapoor 155, Gurjot Badwal 149, Vani Kapoor 149

8:20 am: Neha Tripathi 148, Ridhima Dilawari 148, Gaurika Bishnoi 146

8:30 am: Gursimar Badwal 146, Tvesa Malik 143, Diksha Dagar 141

Madappa heads field in Jakarta

Viraj Madappa emerged leader on the opening day of the $300,000 Bank BRI Indonesian Open at the Pondok Indah Golf Course in Jakarta on Thursday on 7-under 65 alongside Itthipat Burantanyarat of Thailand.

The two were a shot ahead of a chasing pack of three that included Ajeetesh Sandhu.

As many as 16 Indians are in the field, an indication of their growing presence at Asian Tour events.

The strength of the entries reflected in the fact that Patna youngster Aman Raj was two shots off the lead on 5-under 67 alongside tour Order of Merit leader Jazz Janewattananond and four others.

Indonesian amateur, Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra had created an early flutter when he grabbed the clubhouse lead with a fine 67, but was overtaken later in the day.

Late stumble

Shiv Kapur was well poised to finish strongly but dropped a shot late in his round to fall back to 4-under 68 alongside Daniel Chopra, Rashid Khan, Chikkarangappa S. and 10 others while Kshitij Naved Kaul was a further shot behind.

Of the group, only tour veteran Jeev Milkha Singh had a difficult time on the course that had also hosted the recent Asian Games event, hitting a 6-over 78 on the day.

Om Prakash Chouhan and Aadil Bedi were tied 43^rd on 2-under 70s, one better than M. Dharma, Khalin Joshi and Chiragh Kumar on 1-under 71s.

Karan Pratap wins with last-hole eagle

At the Golden Greens Golf Club near Gurgaon, meanwhile, 19-year-old rookie Karan Pratap Singh clinched his maiden professional title with an eagle on the last hole of the final round of the Tata Steel PGTI Feeder Tour event on Thursday.

Gurgaon-based Karan Pratap (71-68-68), who plays at the DLF Golf & Country Club, delivered a second consecutive 4-under-68 on the day for a two-shot victory at 9-under-207 at the Rs. 8 lakh event.

Rookies have now won the last two tournaments on the Feeder Tour with Yuvraj Singh Sandhu triumphing in Karnal.

Local lad Shivendra Singh Sisodia (71-67-71) was second on his home course on 7-under-209.

Memorable display

Karan Pratap put on a display of driving and iron-play to register a memorable come-from-behind win.

Karan, among India’s leading juniors till age 15, caught overnight leader Sisodia with successive birdies. He added two more birdies from back-to-back 20-foot conversions to move into a two-shot lead.

However, it was all square once again as his short game seemed to go off the boil with two bogeys.

But there was a late twist when the lanky Karan produced his shot of the tournament on the 18^th, a magnificent approach from 240 yards, to set up the decisive four-foot eagle putt which he went on to convert.

Karan rose from 25^th to fifth in the Order of Merit with his prize purse of Rs. 1,01,720.

Solid work

Karan said, “I played solid today having made 15 regulations and 10 fairways. I couldn’t have asked for a better time to pull out my best shot of the tournament, the approach on the 18^th. Even the tee shot on the 18^th was a tough one but I struck it well.”

Greater Noida’s Arjun Sharma (70) came third at six-under-210.

Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu and Delhi’s Ashok Kumar finished joint fourth on 4-under-212.

Sandhu’s T4 finish gave him the lead in the Feeder Tour money list ahead of previous leader Anil Bajrang Mane of Mumbai who secured tied 13^th place at Golden Greens at 2-over-218. Yuvraj’s season earnings now stand at Rs. 1,80,760.

Also read: With Hero Women’s Indian Open looming, top field for DLF event