Diksha shoots 66 with 5 straight birdies, lies T-12 in France; all 4 Indians make cut

Indian golfer Diksha Dagar was on fire as she drilled in five straight birdies in a card of 5-under 66 in the second round at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France here.

Diksha was at her best, especially in the second half of her front nine. She made the turn in 6-under 29 and then had one bogey and no birdies on the back nine, as she moved to T-12 after the second round.

Diksha is seven shots behind the LET rookie professional Ines Laklalech, who took a one-shot lead into the final round as she attempts to become the first Moroccan and first North African woman to win a title on the Ladies European Tour.

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Diksha, who is slowly showing signs of the form that won her a Ladies European title in South Africa in 2019, birdied the second and then had five birdies from fifth to ninth. Her only blemish of the day was a bogey on Par-3 15th.

All four Indians in the field made the 36-hole cut. Among them was Tvesa Malik, who showed a lot of patience as she negotiated the Golf Barrière course in Deauville.

She started from the 10th and had eight straight pars to start with before dropping a shot on 18th. A birdie on first brought her back to par for the day but a bogey on par-4 fourth meant she finished at 1-over 72 and was 2-under 140 for 36 holes in Tied-20th place.

Amandeep Drall, coming off a Top-10 finish last week, had two birdies against five bogeys, three of them in a row from 10th to 12th for a 3-over 74. She is now 1-over 143 for two rounds and T-36, while Vani Kapoor (73) is now 3-over 145 for two days and T-52nd. The cut fell at 3-over.

Rookie pro Ines Laklalech, 24, from Casablanca fired a second round of five-under-par 66 in windy conditions. She now has a 36-hole total of 11-under-par to sit a shot ahead of England’s Meghan MacLaren.

Defending champion Celine Boutier is two strokes further behind in third position on eight-under-par after a pair of 67s, while Denmark’s Nicole Broch Estrup lies in fourth on seven-under-par.

Elsewhere, Italian Virginia Elena Carta had the rarest of golfing birds -- an albatross -- on the par-5 second hole.