Four of LET’s top five to feature at next week’s Hero Women’s Indian Open

The coming week will see the top stars of the Ladies European Tour tee it up the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon for the $400,000 Hero Women’s Indian Open that runs from October 19 to 22 with a strong Indian storyline.

With a good number of Indian women gaining status of various kinds on the LET, the home challenge will be led by Diksha Dagar, currently fourth on the Order of Merit and in the best form of her short professional career.

Additionally three others in the Order of Merit top five will be part of the 120-strong field that will be tested fully by the DLF course that has rarely surrendered to golfers at the Indian Open, be it the women’s as in the present case, or the men’s event that is held in the first quarter of the year.

Diksha Dagar, a two-time LET winner including one title this year at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open, picked up pace after a slow start to the season that included a five-event run from the Belgian Ladies and featured four top-eight finishes besides the Czech title.

Another good run for the Hero MotoCorp brand ambassador came between the ISPS Handa Invitational to the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open when she was in the top seven at three of the four events. A week before the ISPS Handa, she finished T21 at the AIG Women’s Open, the best finish by an Indian at a major.

While the wiry left-hander is almost a certain to make the grade for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, she is also eyeing the Race to Costa Del Sol, which has never been won by an Indian before.

As the LET 2023 schedule reaches its closing stages, one of the strongest-ever fields will come together for the Hero Women’s Indian Open

Others in the four of the LET’s Order of Merit include Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden, Spain’s Ana Pelaez Trivino and Thailand’s Trichat Cheenglab, who finished behind Diksha at the Czech Ladies Open and who also has a win to her name.

The field includes seven winners in all from the current season include Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson (Helsingborg Open), Diksha, Spain’s Carmen Alonso (Ladies Open by Pickala Resort), Spain’s Nuria Iturrioz (La Sella Open), Denmark’s Smilla Tarning Soenderby (KPMG Women’s Irish Open) and Trichat (Big Green Egg Open).

They will be joined by Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson, who won the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, and has now vaulted to second place on the Race to Costa Del Sol (Order of Merit).

With only three more events left in 2023 after the HWIO, the stakes are high as a win in India for any of the four will put them on top of the Order of Merit.

Among other Indians in focus will be last year’s joint runner-up Amandeep Drall besides Vani Kapoor, Tvesa Malik and Neha Tripathi.

A win at their home Open can bring a big change in fortunes on the Order of Merit as happened with Gustavsson who rose to second place in the season’s standings with a superb win at the Lacoste Open de France, where she beat countrywoman Mia Folke and England’s Meghan MacLaren, who were second and third respectively.