Anna Foster showed heart, determination and class down the stretch as she held off Iceland’s Andrea Bergsdottir to win 2&1 and advance to this afternoon’s last-16 of the Women’s Amateur in Portmarnock.
Gusts of up to 60km/h, balls oscillating on greens and one gruesome rain shower provided a brutal test on Thursday morning but in the worst of the conditions Elm Park’s Foster stood up to be counted and she remains the only Irish player in the knockout stages after a valiant Sara Byrne comeback against Annabelle Pancake fell flat.
All square after ten holes, Foster made herculean halves with a bogey on 12, an up and down par from a fairway bunker on 13 and a superb up and down from 100 yards on the 14th before she finally stole a march with a winning bogey on 15.
Foster managed to overcome her golf ball being blown off the 15th green and she two-putted for her four to go 1UP.
Having struggled with her ball striking in the middle part of the back nine she produced three of her best to set up a birdie chance on the par-5 16th.
The world looked as if it was about to end when both players were battered by a nasty rain shower but Foster regrouped and drilled a 3-wood towards the green from the middle of the fairway.
A classy wedge left her six feet for her birdie which she holed go move dormer 2UP.
While Bergsdottir couldn’t take her chances when Foster was scrambling for halves, the Dubliner made sure to keep the door slammed shut and a superb recovery from the left rough on 17 ensured she had two putts for the win.
Meanwhile, earlier in the last-32, Byrne produced what will go down as a great if unfulfilled comeback.
Having found herself six down through eight holes against Pancake, Byrne flipped the momentum in her favour with a wins on the 9th, 10th and 11th to halve the deficit with her first two pars of the round!
A terrific 25-foot putt for par on 13 kept the match alive at three down with five to play but a clumsy wedge and three putt from 50 yards short of the 14th saw her fall dormie 4DN and despite winning the 15th with a bogey she ran out of holes.
Birdies were hard to come by in the last-32 with Byrne remaining birdie less since the 16th hole of round one on Monday while Foster managed just the one red number in her game.
World number one Lottie Woad still looked in ominous form despite the extreme conditions, winning 6&5 against Japan’s Aisa Saito.
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