Aditi, Diksha, Tvesa make first-time Indian trio at LPGA event

By Rahul Banerji

The Ladies Scottish Open which tees off on Thursday will be closely watched at home as three Indians – Aditi Ashok, Diksha Dagar and Tvesa Malik – are in a Ladies PGA field for the first time.

The $1.5 million co-sanctioned event with the Ladies European Tour will be played at North Berwick’s The Renaissance Club and has drawn a field that includes 15 major winners.

Leading a quality list of entries is double-winner from the recently-resumed LPGA season in Toledo, Danielle Kang. Also in the running is Minjee Lee, who had top-four finishes behind Kang in Ohio,

According to national wire agency PTI, Aditi is drawn with Solheim Cup star Carly Booth, one of seven Scots in the field, and South Africa’s Lee-Ann Paice.

Early groupings

Diksha will play the opening two rounds alongside Stephanie Kyriacou and Yu Liu while Tvesa opens her campaign with Yealimi Noh and former Hero Women’s Indian Open winner Emily Kristine Pedersen.

PTI said Diksha and Tvesa landed in the UK on Friday before moving on to Edinburgh on Monday while Aditi and her mother arrived on Monday.

Taking to Twitter, Aditi said on arrival in Scotland, “Extremely happy to be back playing a tournament again @LadiesScottish @LETgolf @LPGA.”

Added Diksha, who won her maiden title at the South African Ladies Open last year, “Competitive golf is back @LETgolf.

“Excited to be in the field for Women’s British Open and Scottish Open this August in UK for 2nd time in 2 years. Hard work n all out efforts on to make it to the venue.”

Quality field

Past champions Ariya Jutanugarn (2018) and Mi Hyang Lee (2017) have made the trip to North Berwick, as has 2019 major champions Hannah Green (KPMG Women’s PGA Championship) and Hinako Shibuno (AIG Women’s Open).

The 144-player field also includes 15 of the top 20 in the Race to Costa del Sol competing for a $1.5 million purse, as well as the recent Rose Ladies Series Order of Merit winner Charley Hull.

The Ladies Scottish Open is a premier event on the LET and has been co-sanctioned with the LPGA since 2017. It, however, traces its origin back to 1986.

The LPGA is in Europe after the Drive On Championship and the Marathon Classic, both in Toledo where Kang scored back-to-back wins, the second in dramatic fashion over Lydia Ko.

Defending champion Mi Jung Hur will not defend her title this week at The Renaissance Club, opting to remain home in Korea due to corona-related travel concerns.

The Scottish Open will be followed by next week’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon.

For a fourth consecutive year, the Ladies Scottish Open will be contested at the same course as the men’s European Tour’s Scottish Open, which is set for October, the event site said.

Top-five finish for Gupta

Meanwhile, at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, Indian-American Aman Gupta was unable to sustain his first-round show and qualified for the match-play rounds of the US Men’s Amateurs in tied fifth place.

First-round co-leaders McClure Meissner, 21, and Gupta, 21, of Concord, North Carolina, returned second round over-par cards after Monday scores of 64, the USGA said.

However, both had little difficulty qualifying for the elimination rounds, Meissner shooting a 3-over 75 for a total of 5-under 138.

Gupta, a last-minute addition when world No. 2 Ricky Castillo withdrew on Friday, posted a 1-over 73 to finish at 6-under 137, along with 17-year-old David Ford for shared fifth place.

Match play begins with the Round of 64 on Wednesday.

“Obviously it would have been nice to medal (finish on top),” Gupta said later.

“The goal at the end of the day was to try to win the overall. I mean, I still needed to get to match play; the real tournament starts now.”

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