Diksha Dagar hopes to re-kindle winning memories, Tvesa Malik eyes reversal of form in London

PTI

London, June 16

India’s Diksha Dagar will look to rekindle the great memories of her team triumph, while compatriot Tvesa Malik will eye a reversal of form when they tee off at the Aramco Team Series, which combines a team event with individual competition.

Last year, Dagar was in the winning team and finished T-12 in individuals.

This week Dagar plays in the team with Ana Pelaez and Olivia Mehaffey, while Tvesa, a captain once again, will go out with her teammates Sophie Witt and Elia Folch.

“Hopefully, things will begin to fall in place soon. But there is still a lot of events left on the schedule. The addition of ATS (Aramco Team Series) events mean a lot to play for us,” Tvesa said.

“A good couple of results is what is the need right now. I have been training with (coach) Jesse Grewal Sir back home and last week Shubhankar (Sharma) who was there at the Scandinavian Mixed, also helped a little. Let’s see how it goes. The Centurion is a challenging course, but I have played here.” Tvesa had lead her team to a tied-9th place finish last year. She had finished T-45 in the individual section.

On her season so far, Tvesa said, “I am not able to put a finger as to what is not working this year. If something works one week, something else is out of sync.

“I have not been able to play consistently though the game seems in decent shape. Basically, I have not been able to put a solid week together like I did many times last year.”

Tvesa came close to winning her maiden title at the Gant Championship last year as she finished runner-up, her best on the LET. In 2021, she had five Top-10s and another five in Top-20. This year she is still searching for her first Top-10.

On the team format, she said, “That’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it and picked Sophie Witt. Then we got Ella (Folch) as the random third member. One more amateur will be assigned to the team. We play the team event, but individually we need to focus on our game. If that works, all else will fall in place.”

Diksha, who last week played her first event this season in Europe before South Africa and Asia, missed the cut at Scandinavian Mixed. Winner of the South African Women’s Open in 2019, Diksha, has had a great boost this season winning the gold medal at the Deaflympics.

With her father, Col Narender Dagar, as her caddie, she sounded confident of her game and is looking forward to making a mark after being a crucial third member of the team event last year alongside Germans Olivia Cowan and Sarah Schmitt.

The ATS Series this year has a new format. The teams will compete over only 36 holes – the Thursday and Friday – with USD 5,00,000 prize money being split between the lowest scoring four-balls.

The event is the second of five USD 1 million Aramco Team Series tournaments on the LET calendar for 2022.

The final day of play will see only the lowest scoring 60 players and ties from the opening two days return to the course to battle it out for a share of another USD 500,000, this time in individual earnings.