Golfers Diksha, Sifat to debut at Hero WPT season opener

As many as six of the seven golfers who have recently turn professional will figure in the first leg of the Hero women's Pro Golf Tour that starts at the Poona Club Golf course here from Wednesday.

The most prominent of the newcomers is southpaw Diksha Dagar, who also secured rights on the Ladies European Tour in the qualifying school in Morocco.

She will be joined Sifat Alag, sister of Sifat Sagoo, who was Diksha's teammate at the Asian Games. The third member of the Asiad team, Ridhima Dilawari who turned pro some months ago, is however absent this week.

Other newly minted pros to be seen in action this week at the Rs. 8 lakh event are Anousha Tripathi of Ahmedabad, Jyotsana Singh of Lucknow, Dolma Rawat of Delhi-NCR and Ananya Datar of Mumbai. The last of the new pros, Ishvari Prasanna of Bengaluru will not be playing this week.

Another exciting name in the field, though still an amateur, is the hugely talented 15-year-old Pranavi Urs, who recently retained her Faldo Series India title. Urs will also feature in the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final in Vietnam in March.

Later in the year, she will leaving to take up a golf scholarship at the Albany Academy in Bahamas.

Diksha, who is seen as a great future prospect and has in the past won a Hero WPGT event as an amateur, will also be playing in the Australian LPGA qualifying tournament at the Ballarat Golf Club at the end of this month.

Neha Tripathi, who is also in the field this week, will also go for the qualifiers in Australia, as will Vani Kapoor and Astha Madan, regular members of the Women's Golf Association of India (WGAI). Vani and Astha are skipping the opening event this week.

The 2018 Hero Order of Merit winner, Tvesa Malik is missing the event, but the next three Amandeep Drall, Neha and Gursimar Badwal will all be participating in the opening event of the season.

The first group to tee off will be amateur Pranavi, Khushi Khanijau and Komal Chaudhary, followed by Siddhi Kapoor, Jyotsana Singh and Sifat.

Hita Prakash, Dolma Rawat and Neha are in the third threesome, while Anousha Tripathi, Smriti Mehra and Millie Saroha will follow them. Diksha Dagar, Ayesha Kapur and Gursimar will feature in the fifth group, with Ananya Datar, Sonam Chugh and Afshan Fatima in the penultimate group.

Mehar Atwal, Amandeep Drall and Suchitra Ramesh will tee off in the last group.

--IANS

tri/vm