Championships - Girls' British Open Amateur Championship 2010
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Julie Yang (Kings Acre)
10.08.2010
Yang heads to Matchplay as Top Seed
Winner of the English women’s open amateur stroke-play title last week, Julie Yang, bidding to become the first South Korean to win the Girls’ British open amateur championship, heads the 64 qualifiers with totals of 155 or better for the match-play stages at Royal Belfast Golf Club.
Three players on the 155 mark were eliminated on a scorecard play-off: Laure Castelain (France), Rocio Sanchez Lobato (Spain) and Clara Baena (Spain). They had the poorest second rounds in comparison with the others on the 15-over-par mark.
In tougher, windier conditions, the 15-year-old Yang, who has been based since last September at Musselburgh near Edinburgh, headed overnight leader Alexandra Bonetti (France), who had 74 for two-over-par 142, in tougher, with a 72 for 141 to claim the No 1 seed position
“I did not think much about the wind when I started the round (at 11.54) and was quite pleased to reach the turn in one-under-par 34 with a bogey at the second and birdies at the fifth and seventh,” said Julie, who is fluent speaker in English.
“Then, after the turn, it became much harder to make birdies. In fact, I didn’t have any on the second nine – only plenty of bogeys! I bogeyed the 11th, 12th and 15th and didn’t get birdies at the long 16th and 18th, which I did in the first round.
“I cannot blame it all on the wind. I played some bad shots – three putts at the 11th, a hooked tee shot at the 12th and a few birdie chances that I didn’t take. I just couldn’t get the putts to roll the way I did on Monday.”
All of Julie’s collection of championship victories over the past few months, including the Welsh and Danish stroke-play titles, the Scottish schoolgirls’ championship and several Independent Schools Association tournaments as a pupil at Loretto School, have been stroke-play events.
So how does she feel about switching over to match-play for the rest of the week in Northern Ireland?
“I have played some match-play events in America and it will not make any difference to the way I play the game. Basically, I try to hit my best shots at every hole. I will not be thinking about what my opponent is doing. If I execute my shots, the way I want to, I will take fewer strokes – and that will win holes,” said Julie.
Until Miss Yang came in, Alexandra Bonetti held the clubhouse lead on 142 after her round of 74. But the 18-year-old French ladies champion from Paris, whose mother comes from Verona in Italy, was not happy with her performance.
“My putting was still good but my long game, especially my irons, was not as good as in the first round,” said Alexandra who had a two-under-par 68 with not a single bogey in the first round.
“Today I have seven bogeys which shows that I did not play well.”
Alexandra bogeyed the second, third, eighth, 11th, 13th, 15th and 17th in halves of 37 out (two over par) and 37 home (two over par).
Her three birdies came at the fifth, where she pitched and putted for a 4 at this par-5 hoe, the par-4 12th where she holed a putt from 45ft, and the 18th, where she almost holed her greenside bunker shot and was left with a tap-in for a birdie 4.
Joint third best at the end of the stroke-play section were Curtis Cup 15-year-old Leona Maguire (Slieve Russell) and Germany’s Katharina Sohnlein on the 145 mark.
Leona added a 73 to her opening 72 with only one birdie on her card, a 2 at the 170yd 11th where used a four-iron off the tee and holed a 15ft putt.
Her four bogeys came at the second, fourth, eighth and 17th in halves of 38 and 35.
Katharina did well to finish with a second-round 73, considering she started bogey-bogey and had a triple bogey 6 at the short 11th and another bogey at the 15th.
Highlights of her card were birdies at the long fifth, the short seventh and the par-4 12th in halves of 35 and 38.
British women’s open amateur champion Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale), beaten twice in the final of the girls’ championship, had a 75 for 153, safely into the match-play stages, thanks to birdies at the 16th and 18th to “lift” her score at the end.
Earlier in the day, the Bolton teenager, who supports Liverpool FC, had a bogey at the second and a double bogey 6 at the second before she got the first of her three birdies, a 2 at the short fourth. She went through another scrappy patch before the turn, with bogeys at the sixth and seventh and another double bogey 6,at the eighth as she turned in six-over 41.
When she bogeyed the 11th, there was just a slight danger that Kelly was drifting out of the leading 64 but birdieing two of the last three holes for one-under-par 34 home banished that thought.
English women’s champion Hayley Davis (Ferndown) repeated her first-day 76 for 152, the same mark as Denmark’s Daisy Nielsen whose inward half of 34 for a second-round 73 was one of the best of the day.
Elizabeth Mallett (Sutton Coldfield), beaten finalist in this championship at West Lancashire Golf Club last year and winner of the English girls title last week, had a 76 for 153. Perrine Delacour, the French girl who beat Elizabeth in the final 12 months ago, cruised into the match-play with rounds of 75 and 74 for 149.
The other Maguire twin, Lisa, improved by three shots with a 76 for 155, which was the limit mark for qualifying.
The last player to finish the second round, around 8pm, was also the one with the best score of the day – a one-under-par 69.
Ivon Reijers Nava (Spain), who had a 78 in the first round, slashed nine shots off that with a 9 to qualify with ease on 147.
France won the 2010 Team Award with a score of 291.
All competitors in the Girls’ British open amateur championship have been kindly offered the use of the facilities, with complimentary balls, at Blackwood Golf Centre, Bangor.
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