LINK TO SKYCADDIE PGA PRO-CAPTAIN CHALLENGE COMPETITION
@ WEST LOTHIAN GOLF CLUB

CLICK HERE FOR SCORES

FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND AT PANMURE

Malchirand (16) from France sets course record of 64 at British girls' amateur championship

Tuesday 13 August 2019

    

Lucie Malchirand got off to a flying start in the 91^st staging of the British Girls' Amateur Championship at Panmure, near Carnoustie  today with a seven-under-par round of 64 to take a two-shot lead after the first round of stroke-play qualifying.
The 16-year-old from France turned in three-under and went on to notch eagles on the par-five 10th and 14th holes on her way to setting a new women’s course record at the renowned Angus links.

Malchirand, who is second in the Junior Solheim Cup rankings and has two wins already this year, said, “I’m feeling really good. It was the first day and it is a bit stressful but I’m really happy to shoot seven-under today.
"The course was really nice and I didn’t have any rain. I haven’t played well in my previous tournaments on links courses and this is the first time I have shot seven-under on a links course.”
Conditions varied throughout the day with periods of gusting winds, squally showers and calmer sunnier conditions. Scoring was strong among some of the later starters with Alessia Nobilio of Italy carding a five-under-par 66. Nobilio, the highest-ranked player in the field at sixth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, made her move on the front nine with four consecutive birdies from the 5th and parred her way in.
Pia Babnik, who won the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Championship earlier this year, is one shot further back after a four-under-par 67.
Hannah Darling leads home hopes
Scotland’s Hannah Darling, who won The R and A’s inaugural Girls Under-16 Amateur last year and the Scottish Girls Open Championship this year, sits fourth after a two-under-par 69.
Annabell Fuller from Roehampton is on one-under-par, a shot ahead of compatriot Euphemie Rhodes from Burnham and Berrow who is on the same mark as Isabella Holpfer from Austria, Katri Bakker from Finland, Christin Eisenbeiss from Germany and Sweden’s Louise Rydqvist.
Former champions Emilie Paltrieneri and Lily May Humphries struggled with rounds of three-over-par 74 and seven-over-par 78 respectively.

Players from as far afield as Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America are competing with a strong contingent from Great Britain and Ireland and mainland Europe as the championship, founded in 1919, celebrates its centenary year.

Following tomorrow’s second round of stroke-play qualifying the leading 64 players and ties will progress to the match-play stage at the Angus venue. Each match will consist of one round of 18 holes including Saturday’s final.

The winner will receive exemptions into the 2020 Women Amateur Championship at Kilmarnock (Barassie) and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.

Admission and parking are free of charge for spectators visiting Panmure.

LATE ENTRIES POSSIBLE FOR STONEHAVEN OPEN

Stonehaven Golf Club is holding the Scott James Wealth Management men's 18-hole open on Saturday, August 17.
There are still times available for late entries. You can reserve your place via the clubs website or by phoning the clubhouse on 01569 762124.

Alistair Duncan

Austrian teenager bids to repeat

English women's open amateur

stroke-play title win

Austria's Isabella Holpher will defend her title at the English women's open amateur stroke-play championship at Ipswich Golf Club, Suffolk.

The 18-year-old completed a remarkable 11-shot wire-to-wire victory 12 months ago at Coventry and now returns, attempting to become the first back-to-back winner since Jodi Ewart (now Jodi Ewart Shadoff) in 2007-08.

The top-ranked player in the field is World No. 23 Lily May Humphreys, from Stoke-by-Nayland, who arrives in Suffolk on the back of a remarkable season that has seen her win the Welsh and Irish Open Stroke Play Championship as well as the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden.  The 17-year-old was also runner-up to Ellen Hume at the English Women’s Amateur Championship at Saunton.

Hume has returned to college in America but Humphreys is joined by Toy, Mimi Rhodes and Amelia Williamson who were also in the English team who won the recent Women’s Home Internationals at Downfield in Scotland. The victorious English Girls’ team at the concurrent Girls’ Home Internationals are represented in Suffolk by Jessica Baker, Rosie Belsham, Ellie Gower, Charlotte Heath, Thalia Kirby and Caitlin Whitehead. The latter finished second behind Germany’s Marie Bechtold at the English Girls’ Open Amateur Championship at The Gog Magog.

Another player to look out for is Finland’s Kerttu Hiltunen, who last year was a runaway winner of the English Girls’ Under 16 Open Amateur Championship and who returns to these shores alongside other Continental entrants from France, Germany Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

The Scots are also out in force with a group including Penelope Brown, Louise Duncan, Chloe Goadby, Jasmine McIntosh, Lorna McClymont, Shannon McWilliam, Megan Robb and Clara Young.

The host club is represented by Vanessa Bell, Sharon Luckman and Abbie Symonds.

 The English Women’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship is contested over 72 holes. The full field play 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 40 players and ties returning to play 36 holes on the third day.  

Photos: Credit Leaderboard Photography.