Espirito Santo Trophy women's world amateur team championship in Mexico

Sisters Morgane and Kim Metraux help Switzerland to WWATC lead

By Brentley Romine

GOLFWEEK.COM

Morgane and Kim Metraux of Switzerland (Florida State Athletics)

Switzerland’s sister act opened strongly on Wednesday at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.
Morgane Metraux shot 4-under 68, a shot better than her sister Kim, and the Swiss team took a one-shot lead after 18 holes of play at Mayakoba Resort’s El Camaleon Golf Club in Riviera Maya, Mexico.
Switzerland’s three-woman team finished Day 1 at 7-under 137 (Azelia Meichtry’s 73 was thrown out), a shot better than South Korea, which played the other course (Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club) and counted a 68 by Hyun Kyung Park and a 70 by Hye Jin Choi, the low amateur at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.
The round is tied for the third lowest first-round score in the history of the event, now in its 27th year.
Morgane Metraux, 19, began her day on the 10th hole and went out in 5-under 31, a nine-hole stretch that included a 90-foot eagle and a double bogey. A closing birdie on the ninth hole, her final hole, gave her a 68, which was the best round on El Camaleon and tied with Park for the lowest overall.
“I just focused and the score just came,” Morgane said. “It is always better to just try to enjoy the day. I think I only missed one or two fairways, which is the key here.”
Morgane’s older sister Kim, 21, who plays with Morgane on the Florida State women’s golf team, made four birdies during her round.
“It’s always good to see your country’s name,” Kim said. “It’s always good at the top of the leaderboard.”
The Women’s World Amateur Team Championship is a biennial international amateur competition conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises 147 national governing bodies in 141 countries and 22 professional members. The winner receives the Espirito Santo Trophy, a trophy South Korea has won three times, in 1996, 2010 and 2012.
“I didn’t expect to be tied for the lead on the individual leaderboard, but I am very happy,” Park, 16 said. “I am really willing to make history and win the championship as Korea did in 2010 and 2012 because those players have had great success on the LPGA Tour and I want to follow in their footsteps so that other juniors can look up to me the same way I look up to them.”
The U.S. team is tied for seventh at 2 over with Austria, Ireland and Taiwan. South Carolina’s Katelyn Dambaugh shot 72 on El Camaleon and incoming freshmen Mariel Galdiano (UCLA) and Andrea Lee (Stanford) each shot 74.
Ireland was led by the world’s top-ranked amateur, Duke’s Leona Maguire (72), and Arizona State freshman Olivia Mehaffey (74), ranked No. 5 in the world.

LINK TO ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE