Australian Kirsten Rudgeley put down an early marker in the scorching heat of the Swiss Ladies Open but, try as they might, the bunch could not better her -5 opener. Dubliner Lauren Walsh showed her mettle to recover from a sticky start and stay in touch on level-par.
Walsh has already shown that she has the resilience to weather a storm and battle back after a setback. This was again on show today after a sluggish start. A double on the par-4 second followed by two bogeys on the fourth and sixth would put her on the back-foot early doors. She would dig deep though, to snatch one back at the turn with birdie on the par-4 ninth.
This seemed to settle the nerves as she went on to go three-under for her homeward nine with four birdies and just the one dropped shot on her way back. A level-par round for day one leaves Walsh in decent shape heading into Friday and she will feel buoyed having recovered from her shaky start to end the day tied for 40th.
Rudgeley began on the 10th and went around bogey free with a five-under round in the morning groups. Only the seven-time champion, Swede, Caroline Hedwall could match the Australian on the morning swing. They were both safely in the clubhouse as the afternoon assault on their lead took place.
France’s Anne-Charlotte Mora would bounce back from a double on her opening hole to casually stroke home seven birdies and share the overnight lead. The opener her only misstep all day as the ’22 Aland 100 Ladies Open winner put herself in the mix heading into Saturday. Vani Kapoor joins the fun with the joint lead on -5. Starting on the tenth there was a bogie and a birdie first nine for the 27-time winner on the Asian and Indian Tours. A response on her back nine of five birdies including three-in-a-row from the sixth sees the 30-year-old share the lead. Four players sit a shot back on-4 including Poland’s Dorota Zalaweska, who made a late charge in the afternoon groupings to sit one back.
The top Swiss player so far this week sits one further back on their home Championship. Kim Metraux lies on -3 while Chiara Tamburlini recovered from a slow start to sit on -2 after the opening day and within striking distance.
The Aussie pace setter, Rudgeley, was available to pick over the bones of her opening round: “I think you need to prepare properly on this course,” the 23-year-old said. “Get the right numbers and make sure the elevation is correct. With the mountains and the snow, I just kept looking around!’’ And about her set-up this week: “Me and Harry [Ewing, my new caddie], it’s our first tournament together. I’ve been looking for a caddie for a while and I think me and Harry get on really well. I’ll see where it takes us. We hit some sensible shots and hit it pretty close all day, holed a few putts.”
In the afternoon groups Kapoor reflected on her day after starting on the 10th: “It’s a big relief,” the Indian said. “My game has been feeling good for quite some time, but I feel like everything wasn’t coming around. So, it’s good to see some positives. I’m just trying to believe in myself a bit more. I think that’s helped. I was playing in Italy a couple of weeks ago and I had someone on my bag, he was a professional, and he said, ‘you have it in you.’ He said to believe and that’s what I did today.”
Lauren Walsh heads out in the Swiss countryside in the afternoon groups at 13.24 tomorrow off the 10th tee. If she can take her form from the back-nine into round two, there is plenty of hope for the Carton House woman heading into the final day.
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