Mid-round stumble sees Diksha Dagar finish third in Germany

Khel Today Bureau 

Brandenburg: Diksha Dagar produced her third Top-10 finish in last four starts, but a second win on the Ladies European Tour once again eluded her as she finished Tied-third in the Amundi German Masters.

Diksha (72) finished tied third with local German star Sophie Hausmann (64) even as Dubai-based Kristyna Napoleaova beat Cara Gainer in the first play-off hole after the two shot 71 each in the final round and totalled 14-under.

Diksha, who began the fourth and final round two shots behind Cara Gainer and Kristyna Napoleaova, did stumble on the first hole with a bogey, but she soon found the rhythm with three birdies between second and fifth and added a fourth birdie for the day and went into shared lead after eight holes of the final day.

Then came the nightmare as Diksha bogeyed three holes in a row from ninth to 11^th and dropped from 14-under to 11-under. With no gains nor losses in the last seven holes, Diksha finished with 72 and a total of 11-under and three behind Cara Gainer (71) and Kristyna Napoleaova (71), who went into a play-off. Kristyna went on to win the title on the first play-off hole.

Among the other Indians Avani Prashanth (70) found some steadiness that that seemed to have deserted her after a brilliant first round of 65. She finished T-39, while Vani Kapoor (70) was T-56^th and Ridhima Dilawari (80) was 69^th.

Apart from the win in South Africa in 2019, this is the second-best result of her LET career, just like the third place at Lacoste Ladies Open de France last year. She was also a part of the winning team at the Aramco Team Series in London in 2021.

The Dubai-based Kristyna, who took to golf only seven years ago, will be full of confidence after her first LET title as the Tour travels to the Czech Republic next week.

Kristyna opened bogey-bogey and closed with a bogey but never gave up as the eagle on Par-5 13^th showed. She had four bogeys, three birdies and an eagle.

Cara Gainer had three birdies against one double bogey on Par-4 12^th and that proved costly as did the missed birdie putt on 18^th, which may well have given her a maiden LET win.