Annabel Wilson leads the Irish charge after day one of the LET’s La Sella Open as a two-under-par round of 70 saw her take a share of eighth place on what proved to be a tough day for low scoring.
The Castlerock rookie pro found herself one-over-par standing on the 17th tee – her eighth hole of the day – but a birdie on the par-3 and another on the par-5 18th got her in red figures at the turn.
Another pair of birdies on two and three moved her to -3, but she’ll be a little disappointed to have dropped a shot on her penultimate hole.
Lauren Walsh is next best of the Irish sextet on level-par, with Olivia Mehaffey (+3), Canice Screene (+4), Sara Byrne (+5) and Anna Foster (+7) all with their work cut out to make the 36-hole cut.
Canada’s 16-year-old Anna Huang carded a remarkable eight-under 64 to lead an outstanding field by two shots before admitting she may have to dedicate some of her evening towards catching up on her homework.
Huang, who has already featured in two major championships after turning professional in January, fired five birdies in her first nine holes on her way to a bogey-free round, just one shot short of equalling the course record set by Anne-Charlotte Mora in 2023.
The young star leads France’s Nastasia Nadaud and Germany’s Leonie Harm who are tied for second on six-under-par, while Slovenia’s Pia Babnik sits at five-under and Luna Sobrón Galmes leads the Spanish charge sitting at four-under.
Singapore’s Shannon Tan, second in the Order of Merit (OOM), birdied the 18th hole to secure a mixed three-under-par finish, one shot clear of close rival and OOM leader Mimi Rhodes, who is playing La Sella Open for the first time.
The leader Huang said: “My ball striking was good and I don’t think I missed any greens so that’s a plus. My putting was good today, and almost anything under 30 feet on the front I was making, so it was a bit shocking!”
Sat at 11th in the LET Rookie of the Year rankings, Huang is looking to build on the momentum of finishing seventh at the Swiss Open last week; an upturn in form which she believes an equipment change has helped.
“It’s been a pretty fun rookie season; I did struggle a little bit with my putting mid-season and missed a few putts, but I switched my putter out a couple of weeks ago before Houston, and I think that really helped.”
For Huang, tour life has been an environment that she has had to adapt to but is enjoying, adding: “Being able to manage everything and your travel, homework as well! I think I’m about two days behind so I’ve got to do some tonight.”
Harm, 27, who is yet to win on the LET despite having several runners up finishes, was surprised at her performance after feeling below par for last few days but isn’t looking past tomorrow’s round.
“I was feeling a bit sick the last couple days, so I didn’t even practice yesterday, really, so I was going out here without any expectations, and then just being able to shoot this kind of round is a positive surprise.”
“Obviously, there’s a ton of golf left to play. This is a four-day event, so I don’t really want to get ahead of myself just yet, but I’m just really, really happy with the round I put together.”
Tied with Harm is Nadaud, who recently played with world number two Nelly Korda in her 21st place finish at the Evian Championships in July, and hit eight birdies in her round today.
She said: “I had a lot of confidence out there. Every area of my game is in a really good place right now, so in terms of the rest of the weekend; I’ll just keep doing what I was doing today and see what happens.”
On La Sella Open, she said: “I always love being here. We have everything onsite, good restaurants, the pool and it’s just a really nice place to visit. So, I am always happy to be back here.”
Voted Tournament of the Year by the players in 2023, and Best Player Services in 2024, La Sella Open has quickly become renowned for its commitment to elevating women’s golf through the standards set across every aspect of the event, including a purse of €1,000,000, the largest for a women’s golf event in Spain and one of the largest in Europe.
Thirty-one-year-old Spaniard and three-time LET Access Series Winner Sobrón Galmes, was pleased with her first-round performance, particularly with her efforts on the 13th hole.
“I hit a very long drive, and then the second shot was very near, like two meters, and I thought yeah, this is the one.
“My long game was really good today. Yesterday and like two days before coming here, I was practicing with my dad, working on the connection and my right side and today was good and felt perfect.”
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