Olivia Mehaffey, at T19, is best placed of the Irish quintet competing at the LET’s Ladies Italian Open at Golf Club Milano where four players share the opening round lead.
The Tandragee woman, playing in the first group off the first tee in the morning, carded two bogeys and one birdie over her first 15 holes but then birdied two of the final three to get into red figures at one-under and tied for 19th, four back of the leaders.
Sara Byrne is next best at level-par and tied for 30th, with Aine Donegan straddling the projected cutline at +2 in a share of 66th.
Annabel Wilson [+4] and Anna Foster [+5] have considerable ground to make up if they’re to make it through to Sunday’s final round.
Noora Komulainen, Patricie Mackova, Casandra Alexander and Alexandra Försterling all share first-round leader honours after shooting five-under-par 67s.
Finland’s Komulainen, Czechia’s Mackova and South Africa’s Alexander set the pace during the morning wave in Monza before Germany’s Försterling joined them later in the day.
England’s Eleanor Givens sits alone in fifth place on four-under-par, while home favourite Alessandra Fanali is among a group of nine players tied for sixth on three-under.
Alexander, who won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at The K Club, continues to lead the Order of Merit and is looking for a second win of the campaign.
“Doug and I weren’t really sure what a good score around here would be, so I’m happy to be up there and kind of know where we need to be,” she explained. “It wasn’t the most unbelievable round, but I was very tidy. I had one hole where I got a bit unlucky, but I still feel there were putts that could have dropped.”
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