Top contenders match wits ahead of Hero Women’s Indian Open 2023

Diksha Dagar and Johanna Gustavsson, two of the leading contenders for the $400,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open this week got the event off to an interesting start, matching wits in a skills challenge at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Tuesday.

Competing in the Hero Skills Challenge, two teams – Europe and the Rest of the World – comprising four players each, got a taste of things to come at the venue, before ending with shared honours for the second straight year, winning two skills challenges each.

The Europeans comprised of 2019 winner Christine Wolf, Lacoste Ladies Open de France champion Johanna Gustavsson, Nuria Iturrioz (winner of the La Sella Open); and Meghan Maclaren, while the Rest of the World had Tvesa Malik, Czech Open winner Diksha Dagar, Trichat Cheenglab (winner of the Big Green Egg Open) and Magdalena Simmermacher.

Christine Wolf and Nuria Iturrioz, won the 120-yard pitch and ‘Hit the Hero Bike’ respectively for Europe. The former hit her pitch shot to five feet one inch Nuria followed up by twice hitting a ‘Hero Bike’ placed on a platform in the middle of the lake adjoining the 18th green to put Team Europe 2-0 up.

The Rest of the World hit back quickly as Diksha and Trichat both hit their bunker shots to five feet of the flag.

In the final skill challenge which was the “Long Putt”, Tvesa put the ball to within seven inches from 40 feet on the contoured 18th green to force a 2-2 tie. Both teams received Rs. 1,68,000 each for winning two skills from Ram Kuppuswamy, Chief Procurement Officer, Hero MotoCorp.

Interestingly, Christine Wolf and Meghan MacLaren were in the European side a year ago, as were Diksha and Tvesa on the Rest of the World team.

A total of 120 professionals will tee off on Thursday with the 36-hole cut coming in after two rounds and the final round will be played on Sunday.

Leading the way will be Diksha who is already a winner this year on the LET at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open in the summer. The left-hander will have good support from Amandeep Drall, joint runner-up last year, and Gaurika Bishnoi, Tvesa Malik and Vani Kapoor, all of whom have finished in the top 10 over the last few years.

Other than Celine Bouter of France who leads the Race to Costa Del Sol, the LET’s order of merit, the other four in the top five – Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden, Spain’s Ana Pelaez Trivino and Diksha – are all in the field.

Diksha has had six top-ten finishes during the season besides her victory at the Czech Ladies Open and said that she was feeling confident of a better performance than in the past on tournament eve.

“This season has been a good one for me, the best in my five years on the LET even though I started a bit slowly. Equipment changes were a factor but I have now settled on one supplier and that has been a big help. Also, I have worked hard on my short game which has been a big boost.”

Diksha tees off in her first round alongside Nuria Iturrioz of Spain and Belgium’s Manon Del Roey at 11.25 am. Interestingly, all three are LET winners this year.

With Olivia Cowan of Germany not defending her title, it appears to be much more open than in past years. Said recent Lacoste Ladies Open de France winner Johanna Gustavsson on Wednesday, “I’ve been here many times before and hope to do better than in the past.

“The course is in great condition as always and it is such a good test. I have been playing well and won a few weeks back and I am excited to be back.

“After my third place finish last year, winning the Order of Merit this time is within my reach and I feel that I keep playing the same way, I can get there. It is very tight at the top and it will be an interesting finish to the year.”