Past winners, future stars ready to tee off at Hero Indian Women’s golf

Gurugram, Oct 13 (PTI) Indian golfers will stand to gain as former winners and emerging stars of the Ladies European Tour clash at the Hero Women’s Indian Open, the region’s biggest golf tournament, at the DLF Golf and Country Club beginning October 19.

With a purse of USD 400,000 on offer, a strong collection of proven champions and a bunch of Indian women golfers, who are now regulars on the LET, will be part of a star-studded field of 120 which will showcase four of the top five in the current LET’s Order of Merit and seven winners from what has been a very competitive 2023 season.

India’s Diksha Dagar, a two-time LET winner, currently fourth on the Order of Merit, will carry the flag. Among other Indians in focus will be last year’s runner-up Amandeep Drall along with Vani Kapoor, Tvesa Malik and Neha Tripathi. One big win can bring a big change in their fortunes on the Order of Merit.

Besides Dikha, the other stars from the LET’s Order of Merit are Johanna Gustavsson (Sweden), Ana Pelaez Trivino (Spain) and Thailand’s Trichat Cheenglab.

The seven winners from the ongoing season are Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson (Helsingborg Open), Spain’s Carmen Alonso (Ladies Open by Pickala Resort), Spain’s Nuria Iturrioz (La Sella Open), Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby (KPMG Women’s Irish Open) and Thailand’s Trichat Cheenglab (Big Green Egg Open).

They were joined by Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson, who won the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, and has now vaulted to second place on the OOM.

Breakout season for Gustavsson and Trichat

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Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson, who is having a breakout season, leads the race in the chase to hunt down the leader, France’s Celine Boutier. Boutier’s twin wins at one of the majors, Evian Championship, and the Women’s Scottish Open in successive weeks put her in the top spot.

Gustavsson (1551.07) is just about 241 points behind Celine (1792.88). Gustavsson is just under 65 points ahead of Spaniard Ana Pelaez Trivino (1487.20) and close behind are home star Diksha (1484.61) and Thai sensation Trichat Cheenglab (1448.22).

Ana, Diksha and Trichat are separated by less than 39 points, so there is a lot to play for them.

With only three more events left in 2023 after the HWIO, the stakes are high as a win in India for any of the four will put them on top of the Order of Merit.

Diksha eyes historic Order of Merit triumph

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Diksha has had the finest season of her career. She achieved her second LET win at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open, where Thai Trichat was second.

Diksha picked up pace after a slow start to the 2023 season and has been very consistent after that. She had an amazing five event run from the Belgian Ladies and was topped by a win at the Czech Ladies Open. She finished in Top-8 in four of them.

Another fine run came in the period between ISPS Handa Invitational to the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open when she was in Top-7 in three of the four events. A week before the ISPS Handa, she finished T-21 at the AIG Women’s Open, the best finish by an Indian at the Major.

While Diksha is almost a certain to make the grade for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she is also eyeing the Race to Costa Del Sol, which has never been won by an Indian before.