New Delhi, 30 September : In-form Diksha Dagar, the highest ranked Indian in LET, will lead the home challenge at the Hero Women’s Indian Open,  which will have a field of 120 players from more than 25 countries.

The tournament, the flagship Ladies European Tour (LET) event in Asia, will be played from October 19 to 22 at the  DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.

Apart from Diksha Dagar, there are six other winners from the current season in the field, including Thai Trichat Cheenglab , Denmark’s Smilia Tarning Soenderby , Spaniard Nuria Iturrioz , Spaniard Carmen Alonso , Lisa Pettersson and German Patricia Isabel Schmidt .

The field is further strengthened by the entries of at least eight other winners from the 2022 schedule. They include Lee Ann Pace of South Africa, Meghan MacLaren of England, Ana Pelaez Trivino, Manon de Roey of Belgium, Jana Melikova of Czech Republic, Anne Charlotte Mora of France, Liz Young of England, and Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden.

As far as Indian challenge is concerned , Twenty-two-year-old Diksha, , is the gold medalist from the Deaflympics and played at the Tokyo Olympics. She is already among the front runners in the race to secure her place for the 2024 Olympic Games in Pairs.

A two-time winner on the LET, Diksha has racked up a win at the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open and six other Top-10 finishes in what has been the most successful year of the talented left-handed golfer. Diksha is well placed to make a bid for the top honours on the LET’s Order of Merit, a feat not achieved by any other Indian woman golfer.

The Hero Women’s Indian Open has also meant greater opportunities for Amandeep Drall, who was runner-up in 2022 and Vani Kapoor, who has notched up Top-10 finishes in the event. 

Similarly, Tvesa Malik, who has recently grabbed two wins on the domestic Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, and other winners like Neha Tripathi, Sneha Singh and Gaurika Bishnoi, too, will look forward to the event giving them the right boost towards the latter stages of the season.

Talking to media persons, President, Women’s Golf Association of India,Kavita Singh said, “The last year has been an incredible run for us  with our girls excelling on the international stage. It has also been a great year for our Tour in India, the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour. The level of golf on display has improved tremendously. It is not long before we see many more of our players on the international Tours. "

The Hero Women’s Indian Open has become one of the main highlights of the LET calendar, coming at an important time in the season as the players look to consolidate and improve their positions in the final stages of the Race to Costa del Sol. 'opined   Ladies European Tour (LET) CEO Alexandra Armas,

The DLF Golf and Country Club is hosting the event for the 13th time since the event was introduced in 2007. The event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19.