Diksha seventh after another 69, Avani slips to 32nd as four Indians make cut

Seddiner See (Germany), Jun 17 (PTI) India’s top duo Diksha Dagar (69-69) and Avani Prashanth (65-79) experienced contrasting fortunes in the second round of the Amundi German Masters.

Diksha was tied-seventh, while Avani fell from second to T-32 as two other Indians Ridhima Dilawari and Vani Kapoor also made the cut and were tied 58th and on the line. Amandeep Drall (77-75) missed out on what was a rather windy day.

Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson fired a bogey-free round of 67 (-5) on day two to hold a one-stroke lead at the halfway stage at the Golf & Country Club Seddiner See.

One shot further back in second place on 10-under-par is Czechia’s Kristyna Napoleaova (66).

Diksha, who has been showing a fair degree of consistency after a rocky start to the season, has achieved two top-10s in recent weeks and her game seems to be trending well.

Diksha was one-under through the front nine with just one birdie, which she gave away on the 10th. However, between the 13th and 16th, Diksha birdied three times, two of them on Par-5s on the 13th and 16th. She did not drop a shot, but could have picked at least one or two more birdies. Yet with 69-69, she was six-under and tied sixth and five shots behind the leader Gustavsson, who is also having a fine season.

Avani’s seven-under first round created a big buzz as the 16-year-old amateur is here on a sponsor’s invite. But the vagaries of golf caught up with her as she dropped a bunch of bogeys and fell victim to unpredictable winds.

Her worst came on the 13th, where she had an albatross on the first day.

However, on the second day, she had a quadruple bogey and she went into the water. That difference of seven shots in one hole pegged her back drastically. Overall she had two birdies, five bogeys and a quadruple bogey.

Ridhima had two birdies and three bogeys in her 73 and Vani had three birdies, four bogeys and one double in her 75.

The cut fell at four-over with four of five Indians among the 70 players making it through to the weekend.

Gustavsson began the day a couple of shots behind the overnight leader and rolled in her first birdie on hole 14. She added another one on the first before three consecutive birdies on holes three, four and five sealed her round of 67 and put her to the top of the leaderboard on 11-under-par.

In second place at 10-under-par is Czech Republic’s Kristyna Napoleaova, whose 66 was the joint-best round of the day.

Two players sit in a tie for third place on the leaderboard with Northern Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey (64-71) and England’s Cara Gainer (68-67).

England’s Alice Hewson sits in outright fifth place on eight-under-par after firing a round of 66 (-6) in Germany.

In seventh place on seven-under is England’s Meghan MacLaren, after she carded a round of 71 (-1) on day two with Germany’s Chiara Noja and India’s Diksha Dagar one shot further back on six-under-par.