Anna Foster was best of the Irish in the opening round of the Women’s Australian Open at Kooyonga Golf Club, but she needs to make up ground if she’s going to see weekend action.
The silver lining for Foster, Áine Donegan and Annabel Wilson – the latter making her season debut on the LET – is that they were in the considerably tougher afternoon wave in round one, as the winds picked up around Adelaide and eight of the lowest nine scores all came from the morning starters.
All three of the Irish women played from the 10th tee, and Foster made the turn at level-par after two birdies and two bogeys, but a triple bogey-eight on the par-5 first and a double bogey on the fourth proved costly and though she managed birdies on two and eight, she signed for a four-over 76 that left her in a share of 84th place.
Wilson also made the turn at level par after trading one birdie and one bogey, but five bogeys on the front nine saw her finish one shot behind Foster, while Donegan, who has made two cuts in her first two starts as an LET pro, will need to go low on Friday after carding an eight-over 80.
Darcey Harry and Alexandra Försterling set the early pace, carding rounds of 66 (-6) and 67 (-5) respectively to sit first and second on the leaderboard.
Playing in the same group, the pair made the most of calmer morning conditions both finishing with excellent eagle putts on their final hole, the par-5 ninth, to set the standard for the day.
Welshwoman Harry, a winner on the Ladies European Tour (LET) at last year’s Hulencourt Women’s Open, went one lower than her counterpart carding birdies at the 10th, 14th, 18th, 1st and 5th to go along with her grandstand finish. The 22-year-old’s only dropped shot of the day came at the 11th.
“The group was great,” Harry said. “It was so lovely playing. We had a really good flow to it and everyone was playing well. So it was nice to kind of keep each other going and really try for it.
“I was joking to my caddie and I was like, ‘Oh, it’d be great to finish with an eagle now.’ And my drive actually ended up in a divot, so I was like, ‘Oh God, okay.’ Focus, we just try and get it out and it ended up on the green and just holed that. That’s lovely.”
Försterling meanwhile, a four-time winner on the LET, made two eagles on Thursday. Her first came at the par-4 13th when she holed out with her second shot from 114 yards.
“I don’t know when was the last time that I had two eagles, so I’m very, very happy,” “Försterling said, who posted four birdies and three bogeys to go along with the eagle brace.
Anna Morgan of the United States is in third at four-under, with a further six players tied for fourth at -3 – a group that includes Australian Kelsey Bennett and France’s Agathe Laisne, winners of the second and first events of the campaign respectively.
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