Brandenburg (Germany), Jun 17: Diksha Dagar played a solid back nine to card 5-under 67 and moved into tied third place at the German Masters here on Saturday.
Diksha is only the second Indian to win on the Ladies European Tour, having clinched the title in 2019 in South Africa. She has inched closer to title wins this season on two separate occasions and logged two top-10 finishes in last three starts.
Diksha was two shots off the lead jointly held by England’s Cara Gainer (68) and Czech Republic’s Kristyna Napoleaova (69).
Gainer and Napoleaova were both 13-under and two clear of Diksha (67), who was at 11-under.
The other Indians in Avani Prashanth (75) slipped further from T-32 to T-51, while Vani Kapoor (75) and Ridhima Dilawari (75) slipped to T-65.
Diksha, who played in the lead group on the final day last month in Belgium, would once again look to go out in the final round. In Belgium, Diksha slipped and ended T-8 after being second, following two rounds in the three-round Belgian Ladies.
This week, Diksha shot 69-69 on the first two days and started the final day in style with a birdie on first and two more on eighth and ninth to turn in 3-under.
On the back nine of the Seddiner See Country Club, she bogeyed the 11th and then ran up three birdies in four holes between 13th and 16th and finished bogey-birdie on 17-18.
Interestingly, Diksha birdied the 13th, 14th and 16th on all three days.
A win on Sunday will mean a second LET title and a big boost to her rankings.
Meanwhile, Johanna Gustavsson (74) slipped to fourth place while Italian Virginia Elena Carta (69), England’s Meghan MacLaren (71) and Olivia Mehaffey (73) were all at 8-under. PTI
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