India's Aditi, Diksha disappoint in Olympic golf

IMAGE: Diksha Dagar of India during the third round. Photograph: Lisa Luetner/Reuters

Indian women golfers Aditi Ashok (79) and Diksha Dagar (80) slipped on the penultimate day to be tied 40th and 42nd at the Olympic Games in Paris on Friday.

The two were tied-14th in the 60-player field after two rounds on Thursday.

Two-time medallist at the Olympics New Zealand's Lydia Ko (67), and Swiss Morgane Metraux (66) were joint leaders after three rounds.

Lydia Ko, silver medallist in 2016 Rio and bronze medallist at the Tokyo Games in 2021, will have a full set of Olympic medals if she clinches the gold medal on Saturday.

Ko shot a four-under 68 to move to nine-under overall.

She was two shots clear of USA's Rose Zhang and Japan's Yamashita Miyu, and tied with halfway leader Morgane Metraux of Switzerland.

Metraux had been one-over for the day until an eagle on the 18th saw her sign for a one-under 71.

Also in the hunt are Nelly Korda (70) and first-round leader Céline Boutier (71), both tied for seventh at four-under.

Aditi had back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth after two successive bogeys on the third and fourth.

More trouble came with a double on the seventh and bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes as she turned in 4-over 40.

On the back nine, she bogeyed the 12th, 13th and 15th for 79.

Diksha had five bogeys and a double and no birdies. She had four bogeys in a row from seventh to the 10th.

"Nothing worked for me today and I didn't get many chances. I also missed a lot," said Diksha.

Aditi, summing up her round, said, "Usually when I'm struggling - if I'm not putting well, at least I'm hitting fairways and greens. Today, I didn't have much of anything. I missed a few fairways and I had some short irons in. Yeah, a couple 3-putts, which is also not usual. Missed a few short putts. Tough course, if you just miss a little left or right."

Asked if there was any specific reason for the slump, she added, "No reason. I think, maybe, the wind. I don't think I'm doing it all three days -- got away with it the first couple days."`

On the motivation to keep going, she said, "I think I just had a bad day. Every golfer after a bad round wants to shoot a good round, so that's what I'll try and do tomorrow."