Level par opening round for Mehaffey as Bringner leads by three

Olivia Mehaffey’s solid opening round of 72 gave the Northern Irishwoman a share for 40^th on the opening day of the Big Green Egg Open in the Netherlands, with Sweden’s Sofie Bringner leading the tournament by three shots on eight-under-par.

Maheffey’s level par opener means that she will have a lot of work to do to trouble the top of the leaderboard over the weekend as she finished the day eight shots back of Bringner.

The island’s sole representative at the Hilversumsche Golf Club got off to a perfect start, scoring a birdie on her opening hole of the competition.

A solid run of three birdies followed the opening red score before Maheffey gave a shot back on the par-three fourth, taking four strokes to complete the 180-yard hole.

The remainder of the 25-year-old’s front nine was uneventful as she made the turn for the back nine on level par.

Another run of pars between the 10^th and 12^th was interrupted by a birdie on the par-five 13^th, putting Maheffey onto one-under-par for the round.

It looked likely that she would finish under par as she prepared reached the 18th however, a bogey a closing bogey sent Mehaffey back to level par for the day alongside eight other competitors.

The clubhouse leader after the opening round of play, Sofie Bringner, got her competition off to a scorching start with a round of 64.

The Swede’s eventful opening 18 holes saw her mark only four pars on the card with the rest of her round consisting of 11 birdies and three bogeys.

A birdie-bogey start was a sign of things to come in an erratic yet brilliant round of golf, even though three of the clubhouse leader’s pars came in the opening nine holes.

The opening five holes of Bringner’s back nine were scored in the red and meant she had played six birdie holes in a row in the middle of her round. A bogey on the sixth hole, Bringner’s 15^th of the day, dropped the Swede’s score to eight-under-par.

She regained this dropped shot on the following hole but, just like Mehaffey, bogeyed the final hole of the day which sent her into the clubhouse on eight-under-par.

Fellow Swede Sara Kjellker and South Africa’s Nicole Garcia are the closest challengers to Bringner, with opening rounds of 67 leaving the par three shots off the lead.

Mehaffey gets her second round of play underway tomorrow afternoon from the first tee at 2:38 p.m.