Championships - Girls' British Open Amateur Championship 2010
« Back to news indexNews for this championship
Alexandra Bonetti (France)
09.08.2010
Alexandra Bonetti knocks Julie Yang off the lead after a late night 68
French women’s champion Alexandra Bonetti posted an early-evening, best of the day score of two-under-par 68 after one of the title favourites, Julie Yang, had held the lead with a 69 for 6hr 45min on the opening day of the Girls’ British open amateur championship at Royal Belfast Golf Club.The first qualifying round started at 6.30am when it was cold and wet with the course playing long after very heavy overnight day but the sun broke through in early afternoon before a bit of a wind got up to make things that bit tougher for the later finishers.
Of course, Alexandra, a tall, 18-year-old Parisienne, who won the French ladies title in May and reached the last 16 of the Girls’ British championship at West Lancashire Golf Club 12 months ago, was one of them but she had laid the foundation of her leading score before the conditions changed.
Her outward half of two-under-par 33 was the best by anyone and she did it after settling herself with a pitch and putt to save par at the second.
“It was my putting that worked best for me today,” said Alexandra. “It stopped me having any bogeys and I holed from 30ft for a birdie at the third and two-putted from over 20ft for a birdie 4 at the long fifth.”
With the wind getting up on her inward nine, she had to work hard to reel off nine pars and keep her very good score together.
Julie Yang, the 15-year-old who is bidding to become the first South Korean to win the Girls’ British open amateur championship, set the clubhouse target of one-under-par 69 around noon today in the first qualifying round.
Off the first tee at 7.14am, the Musselburgh-based winner of last week’s English women’s open amateur stroke-play title, started on a low note with a bogey but finished on a high with birdies at two of the last four holes.
“The conditions were not very nice for the early starters and I missed the green to bogey the first hole, “ said Julie who plays out of the Kings Acre Golf Centre, near Edinburgh since she left Loretto School, nine months after her arrival from Phoenix, Arizona.
With very little run on the wet fairways, Yang and to pitch and putt to save par at the second and she three-putted from ‘a long way’ at the fifth (485yd) for a par 5 after just making the putting surface with her approach.
She chalked up the first of her three birdies with a nine iron to 3ft at the 343yd sixth but gave that shot back with a bogey 5 at the eight.
“I was in a greenside bunker and there was very little sand in it so my bunker shot went right over the green and I had to pitch and putt to get a bogey,” said Julie.
Out in one-over-par 36, she got up and down from short of the green to save par the par-3 11th and her short game came to her rescue again when she bunkered her tee shot with a six-iron at the par-3 14th (150yd). She holed from 5ft for a 3.
Then came the strong finish that has won Julie a host of titles over the past few months, including the Welsh and Danish open championships and the Scottish schoolgirls’ title.
She hit a terrific second shot with a five-wood at the 15th (392d) to within 3ft of the flagstick.
“I think that’s the hardest hole on the course and, on the tee, I thought I would do well to get a par 4. Instead I got a birdie 3. That shot with the five-wood was my best of the round,” said Julie.
With the sun now shining and the temperature rising, Julie parred 16th and 17th and then birdied the par-5 18th (467yd).
“I was just short of the putting surface in two and left my chip about five or six feet short of the hole, so I was glad to see my putt disappear into the hole. I’m pleased to start with a 69.”
One of Julie’s playing partners, Spanish 17-year-old Camilla Hedberg was actually ahead of Miss Yang until the last six holes. Camilla birdied the long fifth and the par-4 sixth but dropped a shot at the seventh to be out in one-under-par 34, two strokes ahead of Julie at that stage.
Then the Spanish player stumbled down the home straight with bogeys at the 13th, 15th and 18th for 38 home and a two -over-par 72.
The second qualifying round to produce the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages (the precise figure will be achieved by comparison of scorecards, not a play-off) will start with 15-year-old Bronte Law, a member of England’s girls’ title-winning team at Bangor Golf Club last weekend, sharing second place with Spain’s 16-year-old Noemi Jimenez.
Bronte was out in 35 with a bogey at the seventh cancelling out a birdie at the sixth but she ran into trouble at the 12th and 13th which saw her drop three shots – a double bogey 6 at the 12th and a bogey at the 13th.
But the Bramhall youngster put in a grandstand finish with birdie 4s at the long 16th and 18th36 home.
Noemi matched the par of for the outward journey with birdies at the fifth and ninth but bogeys at the second and sixth. She had three more bogeys after the turn, at the 11th, 15th and 17th but, like Bronte Law, she repaired some of the damage with birdie 4s at the 16th and 18th for 36 home.
The 15-year-old Maguire twins had mixed luck. Leona had a 72 to be joint fifth at the end of the day but Lisa is outside the leading 64 after a 79.
Leona’s outward 34 probably had more birdies than anyone else – at the third, fifth, sixth and seventh – but she also shed shots to par at the second, fourth and eighth.
She steadied up after the turn to reel off five pars in a row before, by her own high standards, a weak finish. She bogeyed the 15th, 17th and 18th for 38 home.
Sister Lisa had a dreadful start and was five over par on the sixth tee, having double bogeyed the second and bogeyed the first, fourth and fifth in reaching the turn in 40.
Bogeys continued to dog her at the 11th, 12th and 13th and she had yet another one at the 18th in a birdie-less round.
Defending champion Perrine Delacour also had a bad start on her way to a 75. She had a double bogey 6 at the second and also dropped shots at the fourth and fifth but she started her recovery with a birdie at the sixth and turned in two-over 38.
Perrine birdied the 10th and then suffered a slump with four bogeys in a row from the 11th before birdieing the 18th for 37 home.
Kelly Tidy, the 18-year-old from Bolton who won the British women’s open amateur championship at Ganton in June and is bidding to follow in the footsteps of the only two players who have completed the British girls-women’s titles double, was not at her best in returning a 78. Like Lisa Maguire, the Royal Birkdale player did not have a single birdie on her card and she bogeyed the second, third, seventh and eighth on her way to the turn in 39.
Kelly steadied the ship with five birdies in a row from the 10th but then ran into a double calamity – a 6 at the par-4 15th, followed by a 7 at the par-5 16th. Stefania Avanzo did well to return a 79, considering the 16-year-old Italian was playing mainly with her father’s clubs, augmented by three or four new ones from the Royal Belfast club pro’s shop.
“Our car, with my clubs in the boot, was stolen in Trieste just before we left to come here,” said Stefania. “Fortunately, my father still had his clubs and I am using them, although we bought three wedges and a driver from the pro here.”
Entry is Free and Spectators are welcome. Live updates are available on Twitter!
Do you have comments or questions about the LGU?
LGU legal disclaimer | Privacy statement | Copyright © 2012 - Ladies' Golf Union
Ladies' Golf Union, The Scores, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AT
Tel: 01334 475811, Fax: 01334 472818