American Amelia Lewis shot a flawless six-under 65 in the opening round of the ActewAGL Canberra Classic at Royal Canberra Golf Club to lead the chasing pack heading into the weekend.
In near-perfect playing conditions, the 28-year-old from Jacksonville, Florida, carded six birdies and 12 pars to lead by a single shot over Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall, Finland’s Noora Komulainen and Belgian Manon De Roey.
In a five-way tie for fifth place are France’s Celine Herbin, Scotland's Carly Booth, Austria's Sarah Schober, Slovenia's Katja Pogacar and reigning NSW Women's Open champion, Englishwoman Megan Maclaren – all four under.
West Australian star Hannah Green is a shot further back at three-under par, alongside impressive rookies Esther Henseleit, and Linnea Strom, and Anne Van Dam, Madelene Sagstrom, Yan Liu, Noemi Jimenez Martin, Camille Chevalier and Christine Wolf.
Lewis was relatively slow to start her round before making a pair of birdies on the eighth and ninth holes and picked up another at the 12th and then three more in a row from the 14th to the 16th hole.
“I started off slow and missed some putts but hit some close and eventually made some birdies. Conditions were perfect with not a lot of wind," said Lewis.
“I think the back nine is easier. It’s a little bit more wide open and I really like how the greens roll on the back nine.
“I almost holed my second shot on 16 and I thought it was going in, so I hit a nine-iron to two feet and that was my third birdie in a row. I was kinda feeling it and trying to get a few more coming in.”
If you can't make it out to Royal Canberra Golf Club for Sunday's final round you can watch all of the action live-streamed through ALPG's website, YouTube and Facebook pages.