Victorian Jo Charlton is in a strong position after the opening day of the women’s British Amateur championship at Portstewart Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
Metropolitan Golf Club's Charlton, the Victorian state captain, began the strokeplay section of the event with a nice three-under par 70 in friendly conditions.
She is just four shots behind the leader, Sweden’s Elin Esborn, but in an excellent position to progress to the matchplay stage after tonight’s second round of strokeplay.
The remaining Australians all struggled, with Julienne Soo carding 76, Zara Woodbridge a 79, Eunice Kim an 80, Jenny Lee an 81 and Ash McCourt an 86.
Esborn, an 18-year-old from Gothenburg, knocked World No 1 Leona Maguire off the pole position late in the day.
She did it with a superb round of seven-under-par 66 (32-34), her lowest-ever score, and in only her second tournament over a links course. "I played in the Duke of York Young Champions tournament at Royal Aberdeen last year. That was a links course but I had never played links before and did not have much practice," said Elin. "So I didn't play well. Shot up in the 80s. But that was my fault not the links course, I really like links golf and with more preparation this time, I have been able to score better."
Esborn went bogey-free and had an eagle at the 447-yard 14th hole where she bombed a 20-foot putt.