Olivia Mehaffey is best-placed of the Irish trio competing at the LET’s Tipsport Czech Ladies Open at Royal Beroun Golf Club after shooting a five-under 67.
The Tandragee woman made a hot start at last week’s Dutch Ladies Open but admitted that the course didn’t play to her strengths and ultimately missed the cut, so she’ll be hoping to make amends this week.
She began round one slowly, however, and found herself at one-over after bogeying the fourth. That was her only dropped shot, however, and three birdies over the closing four holes on the front, then another three in a four-hole stretch on the back resulted in 67 strokes and a place inside the top 20 at five-under.
Sara Byrne bogeyed two of her opening three holes but then birdied the next four to turn at two-under, then made eight straight pars before picking up another stroke at the last to lie tied for 44th at -3, while Aine Donegan also suffered a slow start but recovered from being three-over after six to birdie six of the next 11 before a final dropped shot on 18 that leaves her battling the cutline at -2.
It was a low-scoring day all round, however, and Wales’ Lydia Hall fired the lowest round of her professional career on day one, carding a sensational 63 (-9) to lead by one shot.
Now in her 18th year on tour, the one-time LET winner carded eight birdies and one eagle to better Blanca Fernandez’s morning target by one and lead the way in the Czech Republic.
The scorching scorecard included a birdie finish at the par-5 18th and just one dropped shot as Hall continued her excellent recent form.
“It was just a solid performance,” Hall said, whose sole victory on the circuit came back in 2012. “I got off to a nice start hitting a really close shot to 12-feet. Unfortunately I missed that but from then on I gave myself some nice chances coming in and holed some nice putts. All round, if you’re shooting that, everything was pretty good today.
“As an overall player, I think mentally I’ve grown massively over the last three or four years. I’ve worked more on the psychology side of things and I’d say my game is probably better than it’s ever been.”
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