South African Women: India’s Diksha Dagar played a steady final round of 1-under 71 and finished tied-24th at the South African Women’s Open golf championship here on Sunday. The 23-year-old southpaw, a two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, has been very consistent this season, missing just one cut in six starts and finishing in top-25 in the remaining six events.
Diksha, starting from the tenth, bogeyed the Par-3 14th for the second time this week, but birdied the 16th and the 18th. She found 11 of the 14 fairways and 15 of the 18 greens in regulation and had only one three-putt, which was on the 14th. Yet, she did not convert some of the makeable birdie putts and had just five one-putts.
Diksha, who had one win in the Czech Republic last year and two top-3 finishes — in the Amundi German Masters and the Women’s Indian Open, will move to Asia for the next event in Korea, the Aramco Ladies Korea.
This season Diksha has had three top-10 finishes in six starts — in Lalla Meryem Cup (9th), Aramco Series Tampa (T-6) and Joburg Ladies (T-3) and twice in Top-25 in Kenya (T-19) and Cape Town (T-24). Her only missed cut was in Aramco Ladies International in Saudi.
Belgium’s Manon de Roey held her lead and won by four shots despite a closing bogey. She shot 72 and finished at 14-under and four ahead of England’s Gabriela Cowley (70) on a day when there were just two cards below 70.
Nicole Garcia of South Africa (71) was fourth and Ines Laklalech of Morocco, placed second after the third round slipped to fifth with a 76.
India’s other three players, Tvesa Malik, Vani Kapoor and Ridhima Dilawari missed the cut.
