28 June 2021: Hero sponsored Diksha Dagar registered her best result in almost two and a half years with a superb T-4th place finish which was capped by a flawless final round of 6-under 66 at the Czech Ladies Open.
This is Diksha’s second best result in her career, bettered only by the lone win on the Ladies European Tour in early 2019 when she took the Women’s South African Open.
Diksha, who was troubled by a back problem in the second half of the pandemic-hit 2020, last achieved a Top-10 result in February, 2020, when she was T-7 at. the NSW Open in Australia. Earlier this month when she was unable to play at the Jabra Ladies Open in France, she decided to play at the Amundi Czech Ladies on the LET Access Series (LETAS), the second rung tour for women in Europe, and finished Tied-sixth. That helped her confidence and it showed in her second start in Czech Republic within a month.
This week India’s other players Tvesa Malik and Astha Madan had missed the cut.
In the final round, Diksha got off to a superb start. After a par-par opening she had three birdies in a row from third to fifth and added three more in a row from eighth to 10th to be 6-under through 10 holes for the day. At that stage she was T-2 and just one behind the leader and ultimate winner, Atthaya Thitikul, the 18-year-old Thai prodigy.
Atthaya, now 18, won the Ladies European Thailand Open in 2017 and 2019 at 14 and 16 years of age while still being an amateur.
In 2018 she won the Women’s Asia-Pacific Amateur in Singapore and also finished eighth at the HSBC Women’s Champions. She finally turned pro in 2020.
A final round of 65 gave Atthaya a total of 15-under and a one-shot win over Spaniard Nuria Iturrioz (68), as Leonie Harm of Germany finished third.
Diksha Dagar was tied fourth alongside England’s Chloe Frankish.
