Championships - Girls' British Open Amateur Championship 2009
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Manon Gidali - Clubhouse Leader @ 1500hrs
11.08.2009
Noemi comes through the wind and rain to be No 1 seed at West Lancs.
Spanish 15-year-old Noemi Jimenez was caught in the worst of the wind and rain which put a damper on the last few hours’ play in the second qualifying round of the British girls’ open amateur championship at West Lancashire Golf Club.But the Malaga girl, whose father is a retired club professional, survived a double bogey 7 at the 16th to return a 73 for a total of one-under-par 143.
That gave Noemi the No 1 seed position among the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages.
“The wind and the weather was totally different today,” said Noemi. “It was hard to play as well as I did in the first round and when the rain joined the wind for the last few holes, it was not very nice at all.
“I had to hole a 6ft putt to save a par 4 at the 14th and I did it4 again at the 15th But at the 16th I lost a ball in the rough. I had to play another one and I finished up getting down in two shots from 90 yards for a double bogey 7.
“I was quite pleased with that because it could have been worse. Then I was able to par the last two holes.”
Noemi lost in the second round of the match-play at Monifieth last year to the Belgian girl who went on to win the championship, Laura Gonzalez-Escallon, so she is quite confident of having a good run in the championship.
Earlier in the round, before the rain came on, she had birdied the two long holes on the outward journey, the second and the fifth and dropped only one shot, at the seventh in an outward 35.
The No 2 seed is Manon Gidali, a 15-year-old Parisienne debutante in the championship. She posted the clubhouse target of two-over-par 146 after completing a splendid round of two-under-par 70 just before 2pm today on what had been a bright but breezy day to that point.
Manon, coached by Christophe Pottier, a former European Tour player, had come to the championship confident that she would be one of the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages aftet winning five grand prix tournaments in different parts of France, the equivalent of our domestic circuit of women’s opens, although in France, the events seem to be over two or three days.
She is a member of the famous Racing Club de France.
Until Mademoiselle Gidali completed her round, the joint leaders on 150 were Raphaela Dyer from Hayling Island and Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen. Raphaela has
had a pair of 75s, Nicole adding a 73 to her opening 77.
But Manon swept past them, metaphorically, with a six-shot improvement from her first-round 76.
Speaking through an interpreter, Manon said she had scored well in putting together two halves of 35 but it was no thanks to her driving. She has not been driving well and quickly switched to a three wood off the tee in today’s round.
She sacrificed distance but hit far more fairways that she has been doing with her driver.
“Before the match-play starts, I shall be working with my driver on the practice range,” said Manon who birdied the long fifth with a one-putt 5 from about 10ft, the eighth with a six-iron approach shot and a 9ft putt, and the 13th where she almost holed her five-iron approach.
“The ball stopped only inches from the hole,” said Manon.
She dropped only one shot, at the seventh, where she missed the green left and could not get uip and down to save par but, apart from that it was a very steady round.
As the weather showed signs of deteriorating, Heidi Baek (Felixstowe Ferry) had a 76 for 147 to be the No 3 qualifier.
Heidi had an eventful opening four holes of one birdie, one double bogey, and two bogeys. Out in 39, Heidi birdied the 16th but dropped further shots at the 11th & 17th.
Joint fourth best of 145 were 15-year-old Hannah Turland from Tidworth, Wiltshire and Sweden’s Johanna Tillstrom, one of the six members of the European team for next week’s Junior Solheim Cup match, starting in Illinois next Tuesday.
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