St. Andrews (Scotland), Aug 23 : India's top woman golfers Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar missed the cut at the 2024 Women's Open after the first two rounds at the Old Course at St Andrews. Aditi shot 76-76 while Diksha Dagar shot 77-76 to miss the cut that is likely to fall at 4-over though the second round is yet to be completed. The top 65 and tied from the field of 144 will qualify for the final two rounds of the women's Major that carries a record purse of $ 9.5 million this year.

Aditi was even par after 14 holes and her total of 4-over at that stage would have seen her make the cut. But she gave away a triple bogey at that point and another bogey on the 15th and the 16th and finished with 76 and a total of 8-over.

Diksha's round could be divided into three parts ' the first saw six pars and then the next six saw four bogeys and the final six again saw six pars for a 76 and she ended at 9-over for two days.

World No. 1 Nelly Korda shot a bogey-free 68 that matched her similar effort of the first day. On the first day, she had five birdies and one bogey and had just one bogey in 36 holes.

The two-time Major winner won her second Major at Chevron earlier this year. She also won five titles in a row and six in seven starts in the first half of the year. The 2000 Tokyo Olympic gold medallist however was T-22 in Paris and a win here could make up for that. She leads the defending champion American Lilia Vu (69-70) and last year's runner-up England's Charley Hull (67-72) by three shots.

Olympic gold medallist Lydia Ko (71-70) and the 2022 AIG Women's Open champion, Ashleigh Buhai (72-69) were tied for fourth alongside Mao Saigo of Japan, South Africa's Cassandra Alexander and Taipei's Chien Pei-yun.

/IANS