New Delhi: In-form Diksha Dagar will lead a strong home contingent as India will hope to end its nine-year wait for a local winner at the upcoming Hero Women’s Indian Open (HWIO) that gets underway next month (Oct 9-12) at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram. The last and only time HWIO had an Indian winner was in 2016 when Aditi Ashok secured a one-stroke lead.
Since then, Amandeep Drall’s runners-up finish in 2022 remains the best Indian finish at the Ladies European Tour (LET)-sanctioned event. At the last edition, amateur Mannat Brar’s T-11 result on a fast course stood out as the best Indian result.
This year, while Diksha has been in top form — she has seven top-10 results on LET including a second-place at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco at the start of the year — the others have hardly made an impression. Pranavi Urs has four top-20 results but Vani Kapoor, Tvesa Malik, Avani Prashanth, Hitaashee Bakshi, Sneha Singh, and Amandeep Drall have struggled.
The Women’s Golf Association of India (WGAI) is concerned with the lack of success. “It’s certainly a concern. Our girls lack the mental strength and discipline to succeed at the highest level. They get to the final day of the competition and then lose steam, which reflects poorly on their mental and physical fitness,” WGAI president Kavita Singh said.
“When Bryson DeChambeau was in India, he would practice for 4-5 hours after his daily rounds. Our girls need to have that commitment. I get really perturbed looking at them. You need to be prepared to make some sacrifices if you want to make it big. Sadly, I don’t see that a lot in our girls,” she added.
The DLF course, which thoroughly tested the field on all four days last year, is likely to be “true and fair.” While persistent showers have posed a challenge, the organisers are confident of pulling off the event without a hiccup.
“We have changed the landscaping a bit. The course will retain its natural character but will be fair on the players,” said Tusch Daroga, vice president of DLF Golf and Country Club.
The prize money of the event has been raised to $5,00,000 from last year’s $4,00,000 with the winner set to take home $75,000.
Among the global stars, defending champion Liz Young of England and the current 2025 Order of Merit leader, Mimi Rhodes, have confirmed their participation. Past LET Order of Merit winners, Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini (2024) and Thailand’s Trichat Cheenglab (2023) will also be in action as will be England’s Alice Hewson, Singapore’s Shannon Tan, Welsh pro Darcey Hall and Czech’s Sara Kouskova.
