Meeting Diksha Dagar on the greens
Only the second Indian to win a title on Ladies European Tour, the fearless, hearingimpaired teenager is aiming for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
NEW DELHI: Diksha Dagar’s appetite for challenges was born out of her love for ice cream. It started at the Delhi Cantonment’s Harbaksh Stadium when Diksha, then seven, began to accompany father Narinder, an Army officer, for swimming, tennis and skating.
Narinder, who was a member of the Army golf team, wanted to develop his daughter’s natural aptitude for sports, and needed an incentive.
“Ice cream isn’t good, so papa made me work for it,” Diksha says. “If one day, it was 30 lengths of the pool to earn an ice cream, the next day it would be 40.”
Within months, she was also on the golf course, undeterred by the fact that she did not have golf clubs more suited to her age; she simply picked up her father’s heavy, fullsized ones.
Diksha was born deaf, and that was a blow for Narinder and his wife Sunita, already coping with their elder son Yogesh’s hearing impairment. Though she could lip-read, Diksha was uncertain of her surroundings.
A cochlear implant at five restored hearing in the right ear, but the left ear never recovered fully. It made no difference to her game, and she learnt rapidly, working on her golf with as much commitment as she put into her speech therapy.
By 15, she was India’s No.1 amateur. On 16 March, three months after turning professional, Diksha won her first title on the Ladies European Tour (LET), the South African Women’s Open at the Westlake Golf Club in Cape Town, becoming only the second Indian woman to win an LET tournament.
Her playing rights on the LET secure till the end of 2020, Diksha will use her new-found status to play almost all events this season to better her world ranking and make the cut for the 2020 Olympics. The win in South Africa has given her entry to the Evian Championship, Women’s British Open (Majors), and a strong showing could ease her path to the Ladies Professional Golf Association in the US, also on her checklist. But, Tokyo remains the priority.
“If I make the Olympics, the decision to miss my Class 12 exams to
We were never aggressive in setting goals. I expected her to be India No 1 and play (Jakarta) Asian Games by the time she was in Class 12 but Diksha became No 1 three years ago. NARINDER DAGAR, Diksha’s father
play in Australia and South Africa will be vindicated,” says Diksha, in the middle of a practice session at the Delhi Golf Club. She is working on her second shot, and the tall girl from Rohtak, Haryana, finds the centre fairway with unerring accuracy with each of her four shots.
She shows with pride the new putter and iron she procured a few weeks back. Access to world-class equipment isn’t a problem anymore, but it was when she had begun. A left-hander, Diksha struggled to find age-specific clubs as a child.
Expenditure was another factor; Narinder and Sunita tried to raise funds for training and equipment, but met with little success.
“When we look back, it was a blessing in disguise as it allowed us to step up and work with her,” says Narinder.
Diksha’s school years were spent shuttling between the classroom and the golf course. When Narinder was posted in Delhi, he spent hours with her, teaching, playing, or simply caddying, which he now does full-time for Diksha. When he was in Dimapur for three years, Sunita took over as Diksha’s caddy.
Playing to scratch (level par), Narinder’s driving distance in his prime was close to 300 yards, and it inspired Diksha during their sessions together.
“What a swing,” she says; she did not have to look far for a role model.
Diksha has made rapid strides, the span between her first event on the sub-junior national circuit and the win in South Africa coming in less than six years.
“We were never aggressive in setting goals for her, but I expected her to be India No 1 and play the (Jakarta) Asian Games by the time she was in Class 12, but Diksha became No 1 three years ago. She continues to amaze me,” says Narinder.
As planned, Diksha played the Asian Games and the bigger World Amateur Championship, but a nagging back pain pulled her down. “I felt terrible and promised to work harder,” she says. After a month’s break to resolve the medical condition, the family looked ahead. With not much left to achieve as an amateur and a professional win on the domestic circuit in the bag, Diksha set out for Morocco last December, her plans of turning pro hinging on the show at LET’S qualifying school. She got a conditional card, which did not guarantee entry into all events, but turned professional nonetheless.
Narinder arranged for Diksha to play on tough Australian courses— where wind is a major factor—and that paid off in South Africa. A couple of strong finishes in Australia added to the confidence of the girl, who is anyway bold and composed on the greens.
Having her father on the bag helped too. While Narinder is good at club selection, Diksha lists reading the greens and her short game as her strengths.
“There are discussions all the time, but once Diksha takes a call, the decision rests with her and so does the outcome,” says Narinder.
Confident, yet realistic of her chances, Diksha teed off at Westlake like any other week. That she was able to contend with, and wear down, home favourite and five-time LET winner Lee-ann Pace was a result of her fearless approach to the game.
It also won over the crowd; trailing Pace after the 12th hole, Diksha’s brave play soon had them chanting: “Come on, you can do it!” She won, but the celebration after she holed the final putt was muted.
“I was wondering why I didn’t feel any emotion,” she says. “Then I realised that the past had played a part. As an amateur, I had lost a number of times after getting excited by the prospect of winning. I guess I have learnt,” she says.