On a day packed with high scores, Cavan’s Leona Maguire managed a respectable even-par 72 at the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open around Dundonald Links. Aided by a strong start, Maguire sits six strokes back from the lead in T14.
Swirling winds surrounded the Gailes in Ayrshire made the unapologetic links course play true to its intended difficulty but Maguire made light work of it early on, making three birdies in her first five holes.
The firm course began to fight back late on the front nine as Maguire made two bogeys to take the turn at one-under. As the day went on the difficulty grew stronger and as the tricky conditions began to worsen, so did the scores. Maguire made back-to-back bogeys at the 15th and 16th before finishing on a high with a birdie at the last to secure the 72.
Only 20 golfers in the field managed to avoid over-par rounds and unfortunately for Lauren Walsh and Anna Foster, they weren’t among them – in fact, they really struggled.
Walsh got off to a poor start as the 25-year-old went bogey-bogey at the first and second but shown some fight to get back to even par by the sixth. From there it all seemed to go wrong. Walsh made double bogeys at the eighth, 11th, and 12th before adding one more bogey at the 13th to post a seven-over par 79, sitting T109.
Similarly to Walsh, Anna Foster started poorly but was back to even-par by the fifth before an array of errors saw her post some high numbers. A quadruple bogey at the eighth was made worse by a quintuple bogey at the 17th as the 24-year-old Dubliner posted a 12-over-par 84.
Although the majority of field struggled, both Jenny Shin and Lauren Coughlin made links golf look easy as the pair share the lead at six-under.
Korea’s Shin made just one bogey around Dundonald, but a strong birdie-par-birdie finish helped her post the clubhouse lead of 66.
“This golf course, tee shots are pretty crucial. You just don’t know where the ball is going to bounce to, so I think the secret is to just be in acceptance of whatever happened. It’s really dried out. So it’s playing a little shorter than the years past when it was quite wet out here,” said the 33-year-old.
Lauren Coughlin made more birdies than anyone else on Thursday, carding eight birdies and two bogeys as she joined Shin for the lead late on in the day.
Korea’s Kim A-Lim sits just one back from the leaders thanks to a very strong front nine. The 30-year-old can thank her putter for posting a five-under-par 67.
Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson occupies solo fourth after 18-holes. The 31-year-old was four-under after a bogey free front nine but the course fought back late as the Swede made two closing bogeys to post a three-under 69.
There is four golfers in share of T5 at two-under. Among them is Germany’s Esther Henseleit who made an early eagle to settle in well.
“Yeah, it’s actually a true links this year. I feel like the last few years, we always had so much rain that it was playing pretty soft. But it’s fast and firm out there. The wind is, I would say, the perfect amount for links golf. It’s still very playable and you can plan your shots but you definitely have to think about it,” said the German.
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