Olympian Diksha Dagar makes cut in Irish Open with a late birdie

A late birdie saved Diksha Dagar on the second day as the Indian golfer made the cut despite a round of 1-over at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open here.

The two-time Ladies European Tour winner was one shot short of the cut line when she holed a birdie on the Par-5 17th hole to get to 1-over for the day.

Olympian Diksha who shot 1-under 72 on the first day had two bogeys on the Par-5 fourth and the eighth hole on the front nine on the second day as she turned in 2-over.

At that stage she was 1-over for the tournament. The birdie brought her back to even par for the two rounds and she squeezed into weekend action in tied-55th place.

Among the other three Indians, Pranavi Urs (73-74) missed by one while Tvesa Malik Sandhu (76-78) and Ridhima Dilawari (79-76) missed the cut by a fair margin.

Ursula Wikstrom fired back-to-back rounds of 68 (-5) to lead at the halfway stage.

After some early morning fog, there was a 30-minute delay to the tee times and afternoon tee times by 20 minutes.

However, that didn’t stop Wikstrom, who was one of three co-leaders after 18 holes alongside Italy’s Alessandra Fanali and Spain’s Luna Sobron Galmes.

The Finn, who lost in a playoff at Dromoland Castle in 2022, got off to a trickier start on day two on the O’Meara Course at Carton House.

She began with a bogey on her opening hole, she then made back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 before dropping another shot on 14.

Wikstrom soon found her groove with a birdie on 18 before rolling in four more on holes two, three, six and eight to seal another round of five-under and sit at the top of the leaderboard on 10-under-par.

Spain’s Sobron and Italy’s Fanali sit in second place just one shot behind the leader on nine-under-par at the midway mark in Ireland.

England’s Annabel Dimmock and Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini are in a share of fourth place on eight-under-par.

Four players are in a share for sixth place with France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, Australia’s Kirsten Rudgeley and Swedish duo Moa Folke and Corinne Viden all on seven-under-par.