Leona Maguire hit the speed bumps from the off – a bogey-bogey start – and, like many, stalled on a day when rounds in the AIG Women’s Open took up to seven hours to complete yet showed great perseverance in grinding out a one-over-par 73 that ultimately left her in tied 32nd, six strokes behind leader Charley Hull.
An example of the fortitude required by everyone came with the logjam that developed on the 11th tee, a par 3 that showed no mercy to anyone. When Maguire reached that tee box, there were five other groups on it and, even with a call-up policy adopted in an attempt to get things moving, she had to wait an hour before hitting her tee shot on a hole which played the most difficult of all (averaging 3.639) with not a single birdie yielded.
With winds of 30 miles an hour for most of the opening round, it was, as Maguire observed, “a grind” for one and all.
To her credit, the 29-year-old Solheim Cup star – the challenge emphasised by having to play a 3-wood approach to the first green into the teeth of the wind where she’d only used wedge to 8-iron in the practice days – recovered from that bogey-bogey start to navigate a way around the Old Course that kept her on course to survive the cut, the first task.
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“I thought it was a very solid round. The conditions were extremely tough, especially on those first few holes, [where] it was trying to stand while you’re hitting your shot and you’re getting buffeted all over the place. You’re trying to wait for somewhat of a smaller gust and pick your target and accept that it’s going to move 30, 40 yards in the air,” said Maguire.
Lauren Walsh, making her debut in a Major, started on the 10th and was one of those 11th-hole victims where she suffered a double-bogey six. The Kildare woman was in the very last group off and had to combat the painfully slow play more than anyone, her three-ball taking over 2½ hours to play their opening four holes.
But Walsh, the 23-year-old LET rookie, managed two late birdies (on the fifth and eighth) to get home in three-over-par 75 for tied-63rd, while Stephanie Meadow opened with a 77.
Solheim Cup star Hull – seeking a breakthrough Major win – birdied the 18th hole to sign for a brilliantly crafted 67 to claim a one-stroke lead over Ruoning Yin and world number one Nelly Korda, who birdied her closing two holes.
Meanwhile, in the BMW Championship, the second of three tournaments on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, American Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley – who’d only sneaked into the field in the 50th and final position – shot a superb six-under-par 66 at Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado to claim the clubhouse lead.
Bradley had spent what he described as a “brutal” afternoon on finishing the final round of the St Jude Classic last Sunday outside the top-50 on the standings who would advance but was aided by late failings of others which allowed him to get in.
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