World doom champion wins #VicOpen spot

Diksha Dagar. Credit: Paul Shire

Diksha Dagar, a deeply deaf Indian teenager who has taken the amateur golf world on the subcontinent by storm, has qualified to play the ISPS Handa Vic Open this week.

Dagar, 18, who recently became professional and earned her playing rights on the Ladies European Tour, shot 69 in Sanctuary Lakes on the western edge of Melbourne to win one of the last spots in the field.

It is by far the largest professional event in which she has played.

"I'm not sure if she fully knows what she has done and what she's playing in," said her father, Narinder Dagar today.

"But she is aware that she will play against some of the best in the world, and she thinks she deserves to be there." She is a very self-confident girl. & # 39;

Diksha Dagar is on her first visit to Australia. Deeply deaf by birth, the young woman from the village of Chappar, in the state of Haryana, not far from the capital Delhi, functions with cocaine implants and a touch of lip reading and sign language.

Her father caddies for her and also translates. "She does not have a coach or a mind coach, she does not need anything else," Narinder Dagar said today. "I am usually with her, communication is of course a problem, but we have what we have, although nothing can really replace complete hearing."

"She has the hearing aids that she uses and they help him, and she understands sign language and reads something on the lips."

The left-handed Dagar did not come out of nowhere in wave terms. She has been the number 1 amateur in India for the last four years, represented her country at the Asian Games last year and won the Singapore Women Amateur Championship. She won the World Championships in Ireland in 2018.

"She is going into the world," Narinder Dagar said. "It's not just about India now, our goal is to play more permanently in the ALPG (Australian tour) We want to be around this place The people have been great to us and that's been a lot of help for Diksha when we have gone around. "

Top-Australian amateur Stephanie Bunque joined Dagar's 69 and took second place in the Open field of Sanctuary Lakes.

The French Agathe Sauzon shot a 69 and took the qualifying place in the Barwon Heads Golf Club, just across the 13th beach. Sauzon is a ladies European Tour player.

At Curlewis, the four places available in the men's field were filled by Andrew Pitt (Victoria), James Gibbelini (Queensland), Ruben Lal (Victoria) and Jamie Hook (NSW) who all shot 68s.

In Portarlington, the three places offered were picked up by Victorian Andrew Kelly, WA's Brady Watt and the Canadian player Austin Connelly.

QUALIFYING RESULTS (on location)