The first round was suspended at 9:00pm with 39 players still to finish their opening round including England’s Lily May Humphreys in tied second place at 4-under after 12 holes and America’s Lucy Li at T5 after 15. Round 1 resumes on Friday prior to Round 2.
Two-time major champion Minjee Lee carded a bogey-free opening round featuring five birdies, taking full advantage of the favourable conditions to end the day at 5-under and in solo first place as the sun set on Dundonald Links.
On making the most of the conditions…
“I feel like I played pretty solid today. No bogeys today. So always a happy girl after a bogey-free round. So yeah, I feel like I played smart golf, I’d say. I gave myself a lot of opportunities for birdie, but you know some putts went in, some putts didn’t. I feel like when I was in trouble, I kind of missed it in the right spots and could get up-and-down, so that was good. I kind of got a little lucky with not playing in the morning with the rain but it was pretty windy out there. So I guess we just didn’t have the rain. But yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed my day out there today.”
On enjoying the challenges of links golf…
“I like the creativity of links golf. Obviously, there was a lot of wind today so it was playing like a true links kind of golf course. Sometimes we don’t get as much wind but today was blowing a gale and I feel like just picturing the shots and just having to execute those shots, I think it’s fun to play, when you execute it correctly, you get rewarded. So I like that aspect of playing in the wind and obviously there’s a lot of things like if you’re off the green, you can putt or chip or you can hit a hybrid. There’s so many options. I also think that’s kind of fun as well.”
In a round that was delayed by 3 hours 20 minutes due to inclement morning weather, early starter American Megan Khang opened with a 4-under 68, finishing in tied second place with Korea’s A Lim Kim, and England’s Lily May Humphreys, despite the tough playing conditions.
On embracing the tough conditions…
“The weather is the same for everyone in our wave, and you know, you can look at it as like we didn’t really have the best wave, but at the end of the day, that’s golf. We play an outdoor sport. So you have to change your mindset and go, if that’s how it’s going to be, let’s embrace the challenge itself.”
On her opening round at Dundonald Links…
“This golf course is a ton of fun. Again, you know, my front nine being the back nine was kind of more bite to the course. But I hit some really good shots coming in and I did get very lucky on the par 3, 14. I kind of thought I hit it a little too far but it caught the slope and it rolled back and I was able to capitalise on that.”
Gold medallist Lydia Ko posted an excellent 2-under-par 70 after playing in the toughest conditions of the day.
On how it compares to previous outings in tough British weather conditions….
“I’ve played in sunny but I’ve played in a bit of bad weather. I was trying to go through some of the worst British Opens I’ve ever played. So, we could potentially expect that but we could expect the weather that we had this morning and that’s just part of the experience of coming over here. If you don’t like it, you’re probably not going to play that good, anyway. So it’s just more about just kind of grinding it out and know that sometimes you’re not going to be on the fairer side of the draw. But that’s also part of, you know, playing tournaments over in this part of the world.”
On patience being the key….
“I think that’s the difficult thing about playing at the British or at the Scottish, these kind of courses, is that you could potentially be on the wrong side of the draw, as they say. So it’s trying to minimise the damage and just still give yourself opportunities. I think patience is probably the most important here than to many other events.”
Silver medallist Esther Henseleit was off in the second group of the morning but managed to maintain her fine form with a 2-under par opening round…
“Yeah, it’s definitely been a long day. I think at alarm went off at like 4.30 this morning and I’m not sure what time it is now, like three, four o’clock. But yeah, I played well. The first 11 holes in the rain and the wind were pretty brutal. But I managed to keep it together and fight the weather a bit. It was definitely easier when we went back out and managed to hole some putts and hit some shots close. So I finished with three birdies on the back nine which was fun.”
Photo credit: ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open
