Lauren Walsh hopes a late birdie on her seventeenth hole can give her a momentum boost heading into the second round of the Lalla Meryem Cup after she opened with a level-par round of 73.
Walsh lies in a share of 27th place, eight shots behind Mexican star Maria Fassi. When she had finished her round on Thursday morning she was just three shots off the pace but low scoring in the afternoon has left her with some ground to make up if she is to push herself towards the upper echelons of the leaderboard.
“Overall a solid day,” Walsh admitted, who carded three birdies and as many bogeys. “I probably left a couple of shots out there but level par is always pretty OK. I see some of the girls have gone a little lower in the afternoon but another good day for it tomorrow.”
Starting on the back nine, the Castlewarden woman opened with back-to-back bogeys but recovered well with a brace of birdies on 16 and 17 before a bogey saw her turn in one-over-par.
The back nine was a test of patience for Walsh who hit nine successive greens in regulation but was finally rewarded with a birdie on the par-5 8th which brought her back to level-par for the round.
“I was kind of grinding out there all day, finished with a birdie on my 17th hole which was the 8th hole on the front nine. I made nine greens in regulation to finish the round so I was waiting patiently for a putt to drop and it eventually did on 8 so overall a solid start and looking forward to the rest of the week.”
Alongside Walsh is Tandragee woman Olivia Mehaffey who had a rollercoaster opening round with five birdies and five bogeys mixed together.
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