St Andrews (Scotland), Aug 25 (IANS): Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar missed the cut and exited from the 2024 AIG Women’s Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews, but both will work towards returning stronger next year.

Aditi takes a break ahead of the Asian swing of the LPGA Tour while Diksha will be back in action at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open on the Ladies European Tour.

Aditi and Diksha were unlucky to be on the wrong side of the draw on both days. Also, the wind and three-putts ruined the week for them. Aditi’s best at the event has been T-22 in 2018, while Diksha’s best was T-21 last year.

As the event progressed into the weekend, Korea’s 31-year-old experienced Jiyai Shin fired a round of 67 (-5) to move to the top of the leaderboard on day three. Shin has won the event in 2008 and 2012 and has twice played the Open at St Andrews in 2007 and 2013. Shin was also the first Asian to be ranked No. 1 in the world, back in 2010. She has 64 wins around the world, including two Majors.

“I played golf for a long time, this is my third time at St Andrews,” said Shin. “I have a lot of experience with links course and with not this tough wind, but I have a lot of good experience."

Defending champion Lilia Vu sits in outright second place just one shot behind Shin thanks to a birdie on the last. The American carded a round of 71 (-1) which included five birdies, one double bogey, and two bogeys to be within touching distance with 18 holes left to play.

World number one Nelly Korda, who led at the halfway stage, had a trickier day producing a round of 75 (+3) to slip down to third place on five-under-par.

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Korea’s Jenny Shin are one shot further back in a share of fourth place at St Andrews. Four players are in a tie for sixth with China’s Ruoning Yin, Korea’s Jinhee Im, Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul and American Alexa Pano all on three-under-par.