SIUNTIO (FINLAND), July 2: Indian golfer Diksha Dagar, who came back from the brink to make the cut, closed the week at the Ladies Open by Pickala Rock Resort with a Tied-26th finish.
Dagar (74-68) shot a final round of 1-under 71 for a total of 3-under 213. She was the best among the Indians, as the only other player to make the cut — Pranavi Urs (72-71-71) finished Tied-32nd.
The third Indian to make the cut Vani Kapoor (72-72-74) was Tied-56th.
Both Dagar and Pranavi had two birdies against one lone bogey each.
Four others, Tvesa Malik, Ridhima Dilawari, Seher Atwal and Amandeep Drall had missed the cut.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Carmen Alonso, who has been on the Tour for 19 seasons, won her maiden LET title. She edged out Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson for the top honours.
Alonso (68) totalled 15-under-par as Gustavsson (70) fell short by one.
The final round was delayed by two hours due to an electrical storm. Alonso’s task got greater on the opening hole when Gustavsson rolled in a birdie to extend her lead to two.
A couple of holes later and it was like match play with Alonso getting a birdie on the par-3 3rd and Gustavsson conceding a bogey for a two shot swing.
Both posted birdies on the eighth, before Alonso birdied the next hole to take the outright lead for the first time. But Gustavsson levelled with a birdie on the 12th.
Onto the closing stretch, Alonso bogeyed the 15th to hand the Swede a one shot advantage heading into ‘death valley’ – the appropriately named tight finish at Pickala Rock Resort.
After the pair birdied the 16th, the brutally narrow par-4 17th then proved to be the turning point as Alonso carded another birdie only for Gustavsson to make a decisive bogey.
One hole later, and a clutch up-and-down ensured Alonso was finally an LET champion with her opponent unable to convert a long birdie putt on the par-4 18th.
“I’m really really really happy! You don’t know how much. This is my 19th year on the Tour and I never won before. I don’t have words to say!” Alonso said
Rising up the leaderboard on day three to finish T3 were Northern Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey and defending champion Anne-Charlotte Mora – the pair both firing superb 68s (-4) to end the week on nine-under-par.
One shot back in a tie for fifth were France’s Anne-Lise Caudal, England’s Annabel Dimmock, Finland’s Linda Osala, and Austria’s Christine Wolf.
With her win – worth 500 points – Alonso climbs to ninth place in the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol and qualifies for this month’s Evian Championship. Spain’s Ana Peláez Trivino still leads the yearlong standings on 1,338.20 points. Aditi Ashok is second and Diksha is fifth. (PTI)
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