Diksha Dagar (born 14 December 2000) is an Indian professional golfer who is also deaf. She became the leading amateur ladies golfer in India from November 2015. Diksha Dagar represented India at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics where golf was included in the Summer Deaflympics for the very first time and competed in the women's individual golf event securing a silver medal. Diksha also qualified to represent India at the 2018 Asian Games. She is also considered one of the emerging amateur golfers in India. In 2019, she became only the second Indian female golfer after Aditi Ashok to win on the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. Most of the players on the tour are European, with members from more than 40 countries internationally. Despite its name, the tour also has tournaments in A ...

and became the youngest Indian woman to do so at the age of 18. In July 2021, she received a surprise invitation from the

International Golf Federation The International Golf Federation (IGF) was founded on 2 May 1958 and is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing body for golf. The IGF has two membership categories representing ...

to compete in the women's individual event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

following a late withdrawal of South African golfer Paula Reto. She eventually became the first golfer ever in history to have competed in both Olympics and Deaflympics.

Early life

Diksha was born on 14 December 2000 and started to wear hearing aids at the age of six. She started playing golf since the age of seven, along with her brother Yogesh Dagar, who is also profoundly deaf. She was coached by her father Col Narinder Dagar, a former scratch golfer who serves in the Army. She considers Serbian tennis player

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

and American golfer

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, PGA Tour wins, ranks second in List of men's major championships winning golfers, men's m ...

as her inspirational role models.

Amateur career

She started playing golf as a left-hander in the amateur level in 2012 and noted for her clean long striking during her early career. In November 2015, she was the low amateur at the Hero Women's Indian Open on the

. She has won several amateur golf professional tournaments since entering into amateur circuit in 2012. In 2016, she became the only Indian golfer to be ranked within top 500 in the world rankings for U18 category. In 2017, she won her maiden professional event at the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour. In March 2018, she won the Singapore Ladies Amateur Open. Diksha Dagar also registered the best score by an Indian at the Thailand's Queen Sirikit Cup history when she achieved it in June 2018 with a score of three under 69 and helped the Indian team to finish sixth in the women's team event. She also totalled four-under over the three days, the lowest any Indian had gone in the Queen Sirikit Cup history. Diksha was one of the medal winners as a part of the Indian delegation at the

2017 Summer Deaflympics The 2017 Summer Deaflympics (), officially known as the 23rd Summer Deaflympics (), is an international multi-sport event that took place in Samsun, Turkey from July 18 to July 30, 2017. 3,148 athletes from 97 countries competed in 18 sports with ...

, where she clinched a silver medal in the women's individual golf event and also became the first Indian to claim a Deaflympic medal in the sport of golf. In April 2018, she was approved to take part in the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games (), and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, were a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 201 ...

along with six other golfers who were named in the Indian squad and competed in both women's

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

and team event as a part of the golf competition.

Professional career

Dagar turned professional in early 2019. In March 2019, she emerged as winner of the 2019 Investec South African Women's Open, a tournament on the 2019 Ladies European Tour. This was her first win as a professional, becoming India's youngest woman to clinch a Ladies European Tour title at the age of 18. She defeated South Africa's three-time champion, Lee-Anne Pace, by one shot. She became the first Indian to clinch the South African Women's Open title and second Indian female overall to claim the Ladies European Tour Title. In November 2020, she competed at the 2020 Dubai Omega Moonlight Classic tournament. During the 2020 Ladies Scottish Open, she along with two fellow Indian golfers Aditi Ashok and Tvesa Malik became the first trio of golfers from India to take part in a single event at the Ladies European Tour. Diksha won the Aramco Team Series – London as part of the

2021 Ladies European Tour The 2021 Ladies European Tour was a series of golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world. The tournaments were sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). The season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with many tourname ...

and became only the second Indian female golfer after Aditi Ashok to win Ladies European Tour more than once. She represented India at the 2020 Summer Olympics which also marked her maiden appearance at the Olympics. Prior to earning an invitation to take part in the Olympics, she was supposed to participate at the ISPS Handa World Invitational Tournament in the Northern Ireland which started on 29 July 2021. She became one of the fewest deaf people to have competed at the Olympics and she was also the first Indian deaf sportsperson to have represented

India at the Olympics India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, becoming the first Asian nation to do so. Norman Pritchard represented the country and won two medals, both silver, in sport of athletics, athletics. The nation first sent a team to the Summer ...

. She qualified to compete at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics (held in May 2022) representing India which also marked her second Deaflympic appearance. She claimed the gold medal in the women's individual event during the

2021 Summer Deaflympics The 2021 Summer Deaflympics, officially known as the 24th Summer Deaflympics or XXIV Summer Deaflympics, and commonly known as Caxias Do Sul 2021, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 15 May 2022 in Brazil. The main host city wa ...

after defeating USA's Ashlyn Grace in the final. She also went onto become the first and only golfer in Deaflympics history to secure two Deaflympic medals in golf since the introduction of sport to Deaflympics in 2017.

Honours

She was conferred the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

for the year 2023. Earlier in 2020, the Indian Golf Union nominated her as a candidate for the Arjuna Award.

Amateur wins

*2015 Eastern India Ladies & Junior Girls - Faldo Series India *2016 Chandigarh Ladies & Junior Girls Championship, Faldo Series India Championship, Western India Ladies & Girls Championship, Eastern India Ladies & Junior Girls *2017 Telangana Ladies & Junior Girls Championship, Northern India Ladies & Girls, Western India Ladies & Girls Championship *2018 Singapore Ladies Amateur Open Championship Source:

Professional wins (3)

Ladies European Tour wins (2)

Co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Ladies Tour.

Other wins (1)

*2017 Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour Leg 16

Team appearances

Espirito Santo Trophy The Espirito Santo Trophy (World Women's Amateur Team Championships) is a biennial world amateur team golf championship for women organised by the International Golf Federation. The inaugural event was held in 1964. It was instituted by the Fren ...

(representing India):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

References

External links

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Diksha Dagar
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Diksha Dagar
at

Deaflympics The Deaflympics, also known as Deaflympiad (previously called World Games for the Deaf, and International Games for the Deaf) are a periodic series of multi-sport events sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at which deaf athle ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dagar, Diksha Indian female golfers Ladies European Tour golfers Olympic golfers for India Deaflympic golfers for India Golfers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Golfers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Golfers at the 2018 Asian Games Golfers at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics Golfers at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics Deaflympic gold medalists for India Deaflympic silver medalists for India Medalists at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics Medalists at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics Asian Games competitors for India Left-handed golfers Deaf golfers Golfers from Haryana Recipients of the Arjuna Award Indian deaf people Sportswomen from Haryana People from Jhajjar 2000 births Living people 21st-century Indian women