By Rahul Banerji
Day two of the ongoing Big Green Egg Open on the Ladies European Tour saw a quite remarkable sight, of two Indian golfers in the top three of an international event.
Vani Kapoor and Diksha Dagar shared third place on 5-under 139 at the Rosendaelsche Golf Club in the Netherlands, three shots behind leader Whitney Hillier of Australia, and looking to improve on that situation.
Early on into day three on Saturday and both were going strong on even par after the opening five holes and now in a share of second place.
While Vani (69-70) had four straight pars in her opening four holes, Diksha (68-71) had swapped bogey for birdie in her opening four.
Amandeep Drall made it to the weekend as well with rounds of 73 and 72 along with Ridhima Dilawari (72-76)
I’ll hand over to ladieseuropeantour.com for the rest of Friday’s story.
Consistency was the key for Kapoor in Friday’s play, as she registered 15 consecutive pars after starting on the tenth tee, before finding two birdies in her final three holes to shift up the leaderboard.
“I played pretty solid, I was hitting fairways and greens but didn’t give myself enough chances – I wasn’t hitting it that close – but I was just hoping that sometimes a putt would drop and they did on the 7th and 8th so that was nice,” she said.
Tight course
“It’s a very tight course and you have to place your ball and be very careful, so that’s what my plan was – to play fairway, green, fairway, green – and hopefully the putts drop.
“I’m a very accurate player and don’t miss too many fairways, so I guess that’s what’s helping me out here, its one of the tightest courses we played at it seems to be suiting me.
“I feel confident, the last two rounds have given me more confidence that I can shoot under-par rounds and I can go low, so I hope things are turning around and everything goes well at the weekend.”
For the second day running Dagar came flying out the blocks with early birdies on 11 and 12 putting her name at the top of the leaderboard, before dropping a shot on the par-five 15th.
A birdie on the 17th soon got her back on track, only for a dropped shot on the ninth – her final hole of the day – seeing her sit three shots off the lead with the weekend still to come.
And despite the disappointing finish to her day, the Deaflympics gold medallist is keen to keep her momentum going onto Saturday and Sunday.
Dagar said: “The difference today was that my putts didn’t go in, and I had troubles with my club selection and some of my shots were short.
“I started really well and made some long putts but then I made some silly mistakes later in my round. I had some trouble on the first par-five on the back nine and then had some bad breaks on my final two holes.
Tricky greens
“I had a good bunker shot on the ninth that lipped out, then the putt was breaking the opposite way. Some of the greens were tricky today.
“I have learned a lot of things from today, so I’m going to make sure I make less mistakes over the weekend and keep the ball in the fairway and keep it simple.
“It’s very good for me and Vani to be near the top of the leaderboard, I’m always happy to see Indians doing well, for her to be on five-under as well, that’s good golf.”
Sixty-four players made it into the weekend, with the cut mark coming at +4.
Also read: Hero WPGT regulars invited to inaugural Simone Cup golf
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