Diksha Dagar overcame an early bogey to play a steady opening round and post 2-under 69 at the 2026 AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes. Diksha, who has been having a good season but has been without a win, was placed in the Top 10 in tied-eighth.
India’s other player in the field, Aditi Ashok (74), was tied for 75th spot, needing a good second round to make the 36-hole cut in the last Major for women this season. Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul was on top of the leaderboard after an opening round of 64 (-7).
Diksha, who is making her seventh start at the AIG Women’s Open, has a best of T-21 in 2023, and she was T-46 last year.
Aditi is making her 39th Major start, a record for any Indian – male or female – and is playing the ninth time in the Open. She has made the cut only twice at the Women’s Open and has a best of T-22 in 2018.
Diksha opened par-par before she dropped her first and only shot of the day on the third. She got the stroke back on the fifth and then began a series of six pars till the 13th. Two birdies on the 13th and the 16th put her in a good position, and she closed with two pars for a 69 on the Par-71 course.
Aditi got her only birdie of the day on the second and then dropped shots on the fourth, fifth, 15th and the 18th. The world number two, Thitikul, was in excellent form on day one, rolling in three birdies on the trot on holes four, five and six.
Thitikul added another birdie on eight before further birdies on 11, 13 and 15 to seal her round of seven-under-par and lead by two strokes. Thitikul, a five-time LET winner, has great memories of this golf course after she won the Smyth Salver during the 2018 edition of the AIG Women’s Open.
“I should be better than when I was 15 years old! It played the same; I think there are still bunkers in the way, and when you play well, you keep the momentum going. My strategy is to beat my score from when I was 15,” Thitikul continued.
“I had really good memories on the first hole. I remember the first day from 2018, and on the first hole, I hit it [very] close to the pin. That’s the best memory. Then making the cut was also a good memory, but I think I finished last, so I was to keep improving on what I did last time.”
Two-time Major champion Haeran Ryu and Japan’s Shiho Kuwaki share second place on five-under-par.
Ryu, who won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Amundi Evian Championship back-to-back, began her day with a birdie at the first and added further birdies on the fourth, sixth and seventh holes.
Despite a bogey on 15, the world number three bounced back with birdies on 16 and 18 to seal an opening round of five-under-par. Kuwaki only had one dropped shot on her scorecard and rolled in birdies on the fourth, fifth, sixth, 11th, 16th and 18th holes.
American Yealimi Noh and France’s Celine Boutier ended the opening day in a tie for fourth place on four-under-par. Boutier was bogey-free after making an eagle on the sixth hole and birdies on nine and 13 for her 67 (-4).
Japan’s Chizzy Iwai and Thailand’s Chanettee Wannasaen share sixth place on three-under-par with nine players one shot further back, including English duo Lottie Woad and Charley Hull, Singapore’s Shannon Tan, India’s Diksha Dagar and Spanish amateur Paula Martin Sampedro.
The 2025 LET Order of Merit winner Tan made a solid start with her opening 69 (-2), which included five birdies, one bogey and one double bogey.
