Lahiri, Dagar score strong results at England, Northern Ireland events

One played the week in Newcastle, the other a couple of hundred miles away in Northern Ireland’s Galgorm, and both registered impressive results on the golf course. On the Asian Tour, Anirban Lahiri finished third at Close House near Newcastle and just across the Irish Sea, Diksha Dagar was a solid sixth-place finisher in a tri-sanctioned event.at Galgorm near Belfast.

In the Asian Tour’s $2 International Series England, Lahiri shot a 3 under par 68 on Sunday to take sole third place, even though he finished well behind event winner Andy Ogletree of the United States.

And in a path-breaking tri-sanctioned tournament supported by the Ladies European Tour, the LPGA and the men’s DP World (European) Tour, Dagar played an impressive final round to shoot up the leaderboard for tied sixth place behind winner Alexa Panos, an LPGA rookie who celebrated her 19th birthday with a maiden professional title on Sunday.

At Close House, Ogletree totalled a 16 under 268 (72-66-67-64) ahead of England’s Ryder Cup veteran Ian Poulter (9 under 275), while Lahiri aggregated an 8 under 276 with cards of 70, 69, 69 and 68. Sunday’s 7 under 64s by Ogletree and Poulter were the day’s best and also the joint lowest scores of the week.

The finish gave Lahiri a second top five result in the International Series after a merited runner-up placing at the International Series Vietnam alongside Australia’s Kevin Yuan. “Very, very pleased,” the 2015 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion said later in Newcastle.

“I think that was probably the top-three ball-striking round of the year for me, I think I would rate this round better than my Saturday at Bedminster and better than Adelaide. Very, very happy with how I swung it. My control of the ball in the air, my distance control everything was spot on. I drove it phenomenally. Three-under is probably the absolute worst score I could have shot today.

“Honestly, if my dad putted for me today, we would have shot a 65!”

For Ogletree it was a third International Series victory after Qatar this year and Egypt in 2022. As a result, the American consolidated his lead on both the Asian Tour and International Series money lists. “I don’t think I could hit it much better than I did this week,” said the 25-year-old, who walked away from Newcastle with a $360,000 winner’s cheque.

Up next for the Asian Tour is the $1.5 inaugural St Andrews Bay Championship in Scotland which tees off later this week and has drawn a packed field that includes the likes of former Masters winner Sergio Garcia and other LIV Golf stars.

In Northern Ireland, two-time Ladies European Tour winner Dagar continued her impressive 2023 season at the ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics in Galgorm near Belfast on Sunday.

The 22-year-old left-hander produced a closing 67 to total 5 under par 285 while in the parallel men’s tournament, Manu Gandas finished in a tie for 20th place after being in the top five at one point during the week.

The event saw the men’s and women’s tournaments being played on the same courses at the same time for two equal prize funds of $1.5 million.

Dagar had cards of 71-74-72-67, and really caught fire on the final day with eight birdies against three bogies. “Yesterday I could have done better and because of yesterday’s experience I played aggressively today,” Dagar would say later on the LET website.

“One club extra because of yesterday’s weather. I feel so excited. I wanted to do it and I want to catch it and I wanted to make it a little bit hard for the leaders as well.”

At one point, Diksha had climbed as high as third on the leaderboard before a combination of dropped shots and being overtaken gave her an eventual sixth place.

The outcome also strengthened her hold on fifth place in the 2023 Race to Costa del Sol, the LET’s Order of Merit which is led by France’s Celine Boutier on 1,725.38 points.

Spain’s Ana Peláez Trivino is in second place (1,487.20) and Aditi Ashok is third (1,309.19), Linn Grant of Sweden is fourth with 1,276.28 points. Dagar has reduced the gap to her and now has 1,237.34 points with Czechia’s Klara Davidson Spilkova in sixth (10,66.46).

It was Dagar’s fifth top 10 finish of the season.