Stephanie Meadow’s quest for a second-successive strong major championship performance is off to an excellent start after posting a two-under 69 in the morning session of round one at the Amundi Evian Championship at France’s Evian Resort.
The early starters were greeted by ideal scoring conditions at the picturesque venue overlooking Lake Geneva on the French-Swiss border, and Meadow had little trouble in getting red numbers on the card. The Jordanstown woman made six birdies in her opening round, taking care of three of the four par-5s but it wasn’t all roses as she’d make four bogeys as well.
After an opening par, back-to-back dropped shots on two and three was far from the ideal start to the day, and with those around her picking up early strokes, she knew she’d need to quickly regroup and she did so admirably, making birdies at five, seven and nine to make the turn at -1.
It was a case of one step forward, one step back on the back nine as she’d follow birdies at 12 and 15 with bogeys at 13 and 16, but she’d get back into red figures on the inward loop with a birdie-three at 17. She failed to convert a 12-footer for back-to-back birdies on the last but cleaned up the three-foot return put to post a two-under 69 that saw her provisionally tied for 11th ahead of the afternoon wave.
South African Paula Reto was the best of the early starters making eight birdies and just the one bogey to post the clubhouse target at -7, two clear of home favourite Celine Boutier and the United States’ Alison Lee.
Among the 13 to join Meadow at -2 are defending champion Brooke Henderson, recent LPGA winner Linn Grant, 20-year-old phenom Rose Zhang, and two-time major champion Minjee Lee.
Leona Maguire plays in the afternoon wave alongside major-winning duo Danielle Kang and Yuka Saso.
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