Golfers Aditi, Diksha make the cut in a Major for first time

LONDON: In a first for Indian women’s golf, two players from the country have made the cut at a Major together with Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar producing back-nine heroics to progress to the third round at the Wom-en’s Open at Walton Heath.

Aditi went 3-under for the back nine and Diksha played the back nine in 2-under and made the cut.

Aditi (72-69) was Tied-ninth as she moved into a position to improve her best finish of T-22 at the Women’s Open, while Diksha made her first cut in a Major event. Diksha is Tied-47th. This is only the second instance in In-dian golf when two players have made the cut together at a Major event.

In 2012, Jeev Milkha Singh and Anirban Lahiri made the cut together at the British Open. Meanwhile, Ally Ewing of the US fired a round of six-under 66 to move into a five-shot lead at the halfway mark.

Three players - England’s Charley Hull (68), American Andrea Lee (68) and Japan’s Minami Katsu (69) - share the second place at 5-under-par.

Aditi, who had an even par 72 in the first round, was even par for the front nine with a birdie on the first and a bogey on Par-5 sixth.

At that stage, she was still even for 27 holes. Then came birdies on the 11th, 14th, 16th and the 17th with one dropped shot on Par-4 13th.

There was a tremendous improvement over the first day for Aditi, as she found 12 of the 15 fairways, as against nine on the first day and had 14 greens in regulation on both days.

The putter also performed better with 32 putts on the first day and 29 on the second.

While Diksha found fewer fairways, she had greater success in terms of greens in regulation, 14 out of 18 in the second round as against 10 out of 18 on the first day. She had 31 putts on both days. Diksha had a birdie on the sixth but dropped a double bogey on the Par-4 seventh and turned in 1-over. Diksha found birdies on the 13th and the 16th for a 2-under 35 on the back nine. Four players are in a tie for fifth place after 36 holes with Americans Lilia Vu and Alison Lee alongside Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Korea’s Hyo-Joo Kim on four-under-par.

There are nine players one shot further back on three-under-par including 2021 Race to Costa del Sol champion Atthaya Thitikul, Solheim Cup star Jodi Ewart Shadoff and four-time LET winner Aditi Ashok.

The cut fell at +2 with 73 players making it through to the final two days. Agencies

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