Helen Briem showed why she is the highest-ranked player in the field with a convincing win at The R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship at Ganton today but leading qualifier Jack Murphy’s R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship campaign came to an end.
The 94th Girls’ Amateur Championship and the 96th Boys’ Amateur Championship are being played simultaneously at the renowned Yorkshire venue Ganton and today saw the round of 64 being contested in both championships.
All five Irish in the last-64 of the Girls Championship were beaten with Fota Island’s John Doyle and Tipperary’s Donnacha Cleary the only survivors in the Boys Championship.
Briem, who is ranked tenth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®), eased to a 5&4 win over Carla de Troia from France and the German was one of the first to take up her place in tomorrow’s round of 16.
Murphy suffered the curse of the leading qualifier when he came up against an inspired Jose Antonio Sintes Navarro of Spain who raced to an early three-hole lead and never looked back as he secured a dominant 5&3 victory.
Cleary overcame Ukraine’s Lev Grinberg 3&2 while Doyle was a convincing 6&5 victor over Sweden’s Neo Berg.
“I feel good. I played really solidly all day. It’s good to get in early and get a bit of a rest before tomorrow. I putted well and hit a lot of greens and won pretty early,” said Doyle who was part of the victorious Irish Boys Home Internationals side last week.
“It gives me a lot of confidence. We won at the Homes (Boys’ Home Internationals) which we were delighted with and so I’m confident from that as well as this so I’m happy.”
Doyle will bid to overcome American Alex Papayoanou while Cleary will face Julius Lange of Germany.
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