London, Aug 10 (IANS) Diksha Dagar survived a roller-coaster on the back nine to card an even par 73 in the second round of the PIF London Championship held at Centurion Club. Diksha, who has had a series of Top-10s this season, is now Tied-13th after being Tied-10th at the end of the first day.
Of the four Indian women who teed up this week, three made the cut. The other two were Pranavi Urs and Aditi Ashok.
Pranavi (75-71) was even par for two days at the Par-73 Centurion Club and was Tied-28th. Aditi Ashok (73-74) was T-37 at 1-over for two rounds. Rookie Avani Prashanth (76-76) missed the cut. The cut fell at +3 with 65 players making it through to the final day of action at Centurion Club.
Diksha birdied the first and the sixth with a bogey in between on the third to turn in 1-under. On the back nine, she dropped a shot on the 10th and then gave away a double bogey on the Par-4 12th. The gritty golfer, who has set her eyes on her National title, the Women’s Indian Open, birdied the 13th and the 16th to recover to even par 73.
In the Individual competition, Germany’s Laura Funfstuck fired a round of 70 (-3) on day two to hold a three-shot lead heading into the final day. The German started with a birdie at the first before rolling in three birdies in four holes on the sixth, eighth and ninth.
A dropped shot on 15 was followed by an excellent par-save on 16 before another dropped shot on 17, but she finished in style with a birdie at the last to reach nine-under-par.
Four players are in a share of second place with Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, Belgium’s Manon De Roey, France’s Perrine Delacour and South Africa’s Casandra Alexander all on six-under-par.
England’s Cara Gainer and Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini are in a tie for sixth place on five-under-par with five players one shot further back in T8.
Team Du Toit secured a one-stroke victory winning with a total of 29-under-par at the PIF London Championship held at Centurion Club.
Diksha in Team Nadaud finished seventh, and Avani Prashanth was in Team Briem, which was also tied seventh. Aditi led the team, which had Pranavi, and they were 21st.
The quartet of Danielle Du Toit, Sarah Kemp, Marta Sanz Barrio, and Megan Dennis began the day in a share of 11th place on 13-under-par.
They began the day on the 10th tee, and it didn’t take long for some putts to drop as they made the turn in 10-under for the day, thanks to eagles from Du Toit and Sanz Barrio.
On their back nine, it was a steadier pace, but they remained in contention, and Du Toit and Dennis rolled in putts at the last to climb to the top of the leaderboard and seal victory.
It was a remarkable turnaround for South Africa’s Du Toit, who had teed it up on the LET Access Series earlier this week and then withdrew to fly to London to be first reserve.
Following Charley Hull’s withdrawal due to injury, Du Toit was drafted into the competition and ended up captaining the quartet to victory.
–IANS
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