Grant, Maguire & Mehaffey through at British Amateur

It turned out to be a very good day for the Irish ladies at Pyle & Kenfig as three have progressed from the five starters at the match play stages.
 

 
At the start of the day five Irish ladies were through to the match play stages with Paula Grant (Lisburn) leading the way as the top qualifier from the stroke play section.  She was joined by Leona Maguire (Slieve Russell), Olivia Mehaffey (RCD Ladies), Mairead Martin (Kanturk) and Chloe Ryan (Castletroy) and all put in excellent performances in the morning session with all but Ryan progressing to the second round.
 
MORNING MATCHES
Grant defeated Cecile Finne Ipsen (Denmark) by 4&2
Mehaffey defeated Chloe Goadby (Scotland) by 4&3
Martin defeated Ariane Klotz (France) by 4&3
Maguire defeated Elena Hualde Zuniga (Spain) by 5&4
Ryan was narrowly beaten by one hole by Amanda Linner (Sweden)
 
AFTERNOON MATCHES
In the afternoon Olivia Mehaffey was drawn to play Mairead Martin which was unlucky as only one could go through and in this case Mehaffey produced a masterclass and won 5&4. Paula Grant defeated England’s Rochelle Morris by 4&3 but the largest winning margin of any of the days matches was by Leona Maguire who defeated Paula Neira Garcia of Spain 7&6.
 
Leona Maguire 
“I played really nice golf this morning, made some good birdies and carried it on into this afternoon’s round. I hit a lot of fairways and greens to give myself a lot of chances. Once you get into match play you can be a bit more aggressive and go after a few more pins. 
“I’ll take each match as it comes. There’s a really strong field out here. I had a good performance today and we’ll take it from there once tomorrow’s round starts.” 
 
Paula Grant 
“I was two down through six holes in the morning’s match but I made a good comeback against Cecilie. I played really solid golf in the afternoon and made a lot more birdies. Overall, a pretty good day. 
“The conditions were tough and the wind was going in the opposite direction to yesterday. You have to keep plugging away, keep hitting the fairways and hopefully hole some putts. 
“I think I can do well here but I’ll take it one step at a time, one match at a time and see how things go. It’s nice to finish early and rest before tomorrow.”
 
Olivia Mehaffey 
“I had two really good wins and I played really solid out there today. The conditions got really tough this afternoon but I hit some really good shots to the fairways and greens. I grew up playing a lot of links golf so it’s nice to get back to my roots and play links golf again.
“With match play anything can happen. It’s links golf and you don’t know what the weather can throw at you. It’s anyone’s game really.”
 
Tomorrow will see another all Irish battle as the competitors face-off for a place in the quarter finals and Paula Grant will play Olivia Mehaffey at 8:30am while Leona Maguire will face Beatrice Wallin of Sweden in the 8:40 match.