Diksha, Aditi set to tee off in Evian C'ships with busy season looming

Evian-les-Bains (France), Jul 10 (PTI) Diksha Dagar will tee off at the Amundi Evian Championships, one of the Majors in women's golf, this week as she gears up for one of her busiest stretches of her career that also includes the Olympic Games in Paris.

Diksha will play seven events in eight weeks with two Majors and the Olympics besides the Women's Scottish Open and a Ladies European Tour event, among others.

Also playing in the two Majors, including this week's Evian, is Aditi Ashok, who will also play the Olympics and the Women's Scottish Open.

Aditi, who was agonisingly one spot away from a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, plays her third Games, while Diksha is ready for her second.

The left-handed Diksha is coming off a T-14 finish at the Aramco Series London, and has been showing signs of coming back into the kind of form that saw her finish third on the LET order of Merit.

Currently 14th on the Order of Merit, she has had three top-10s, four top-20 and two top-25 finishes, a good but modest run for Diksha, who has high expectations from her ever-improving game.

Her father, Naren Dagar, who travels with her, says, "Since the time she made her debut on LET and won and then added a second win last year, she has had numerous close runs with more titles, including at her home event, the Hero Women's Indian Open. We feel that she is capable of winning more in bigger event. She is becoming better at her game, has become stronger mentally and physically." With low rounds becoming more frequent, Diksha shows no fear of big events and could get a breakthrough any week to add to her twin wins on LET.

She plays the Evian Championships this week, followed by the Dutch Ladies and has a week off before the Olympics, followed by the Women's Scottish Open and the AIG Women's Open and the KPMG Irish Women's Open.

"This is one of the most important stretches in European Women's golf," adds Dagar.

Aditi, who won the season-ending Andalucia Championships on LET in 2023, has not had a top-10 in 2024 and her best was T-17 at the Meijer LPGA Classic this season. However, she has missed only four cuts in 14 starts, though many of her finishes have been on the lower half of the leaderboard after the cut.

The thought of another Olympics will fire her up as she knows the impact she had while finishing fourth in Tokyo.

Some of the world stars in the field include No. 1 Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Jin Young Ko, Amy Yang and Celin Boutier and Charley Hull.

Hull, a six-time professional tournament winner, achieved her career-best finish of tied-third in this championship two years ago and is still looking for her first Major title.

However, despite having finished T23rd, T19th and T16th in the first three Majors of the year, the Chevron Championship, the US Women's Open and the KPMG Women's PGA Championship respectively, she is not keen to set a target for this week's Major.

Hull has three runners-up finishes in Majors, with one in each of the AIG Women's Open, the US Women's Open and the Chevron Championship.

With the Amundi Evian Championship and the AIG Women's Open still to be played in 2024, she will have two more chances to shine in the Majors this summer as well as in the Olympics at Le Golf National next month. PTI Cor AM AM AM