Lauren Walsh is just four shots off the lead after day one of the Investec SA Women’s Open at Erinvale Country & Golf Estate in Cape Town, while Annabel Wilson is one further back at -2.
Coming in on the back of a best-of-the-season T4 at last week’s Joburg Ladies Open, second-year LET pro Walsh came roaring from the traps with a birdie on her opening hole – the par-4 10th – but went one better on 11, holing out for an eagle-two to move to -3 through two. Unfortunately, the blistering start cooled off with a bogey on 12, but she got back on the birdie trail on 13 and added two more on 16 and 18 with a bogey sandwiched between to reach the turn at -4 with just two pars on the card.
She made eight pars on the front side, however, with a bogey on the sixth the odd one out, and she’ll be a little disappointed not to have shot lower than 69 for a share of 16th given the strong opening nine.
Wilson started her day on the other side of the course, but got off to a similarly hot start, birdieing the second and eagling the par-5 third, but she found herself the wrong side of par through five after a devastating triple bogey on four and a single bogey on five.
From there, she kept her card blemish free, adding birdies at seven, 12 and 13 to card a two-under 70 and sit tied for 32nd.
Sara Byrne and Anna Foster both have work to do to make the cut after one-over 73s which leave them in a share of 88th, while Olivia Mehaffey’s week looks set to come to a premature end after shooting an eight-over 90.
France’s Perrine Delacour and Germany’s Aline Krauter share the lead after the pair opened with rounds of 65 for -7 tallies.
It is a tight leaderboard with three players in a share of third place, including Namibia’s Bonita Bredenhann, Czech’s Sara Kouskova, and France’s Lucie Malchirand, on six-under par (66).
There was a hole-in-one on 14 from Bredenhann. “That was amazing”, said the 30-year-old from Namibia. “I was talking with my caddie back and forth on which iron, and then decided 158 meters, on six. I took the club and when I hit it, it just got off so nicely and the next moment it was just in the hole. I shouted, yes, then looked back at the board and it said for [500,000 South African rand] for rounds three and four – so was like wrong day but still very happy.”
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