Championships - Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship 2008
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Hedwall in leading qualifier spot
12.06.2008
Top 64 make it through to match play stages at North Berwick
20:15pmFor the first time in memory, no play-off was required to decide the match play draw at North Berwick. All players on 154 or better made it a round number.
Sweden's Caroline Hedwall as expected led the field as Spanish player Maria Hernandez shot 69 to finish in secone place only one shot behind Caroline. The match play commences tomorrow (Friday) at 7.30am.
Sweden won the Team Award in a countback from Spain. Scotland finished a very creditable third.
MATCH PLAY DRAW
16:30pm
CAROLINE HEDWALL MAINTAINS CLEAR LEAD IN SECOND Q ROUND
Championship debutante and overnight leader Caroline Hedwall from Barseback, Sweden maintained the pole position in the qualifying stages of the Ladies British Open with a solid, par-matching second round of 72 for a 36-hole aggregate four-under-par 140.
Next best was 17-year-old American Taylore Karle, first reserve for the US Curtis Cup team at St Andrews and a student at Pepperdine University in California. This is also Taylore’s first appearance in the championship.
Hedwall’s 19-year-old twin sister Jacqueline was also assured of a place among the 64 qualifiers for the match-play stages after rounds of 77 and 74 for 151.
Caroline, who has a handicap of +5.4 which makes her the best player, on paper, in the field, admitted that after her brilliant first round of 68 in a half-gale early on Tuesday morning she was not quite motivated enough to have a go at improving on that splendid effort in the much easier conditions prevailing for the second round. “I played well enough but the spark wasn’t there. I was either 10 metres short or 10 metres long with my approach shots,” said Caroline who had three bogeys, at the sixth, seventh and 16th, and four birdies, at the third, fifth, eighth and 18th in halves of 36 and 34. The Hedwalls will be at different US colleges in the autumn – Caroline enrolling at Oklahoma State and Jacqueline at Louisiana State. Karle, playing in Europe for the first time, had a 70 for 145. Having played – and failed – in a US Women’s Open qualifying event, the American from Scottsdale, Arizona arrived at North Berwick at 5pm on the eve of the championship. She had time only to play nine holes of practice. “I came over to Scotland because I wanted to play real links golf – and I have not been disappointed. I love it. I love the way the conditions change while you are actually playing the round. You start off with the wind blowing from that way and halfway through it turns round and blows the other way,” said Taylore.
14:25pm
Anna Nordqvist put another Swedish name at the top of the leaderboard with a sparkling round of four-under-par 68 mid-afternoon on the second day of the Ladies' British open amateur championship at North Berwick.
Coupled with her first-round 78 - she played in the worst of the Wednesday evening rain - that gave the 6ft 1in Anna, who celebrated her 21st birthday two days ago, a 36-hole total of two-over-par 146.
Beaten in the last two finals of this championship, Nordqvist hit 15 greens in regulation in a bogey-free round which matched compatriot Caroline Hedwall's opening-day 68 as the best round of the tournament so far.
"I birdied the sixth, seventh, 13th and 17th and though I'm happy with the round, I left a few putts out there. It could have been better."
14:00pm
England's Hannah Burke (Mid-Herts) and Rachel Jennings (Izaak Walton) shared the clubhouse lead at 2pm on the second day of the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship over the North Berwick links.
Much improved conditions led to a dramatic improvement in the standard of scoring. Hannah had a 74 for 147, a three-over-par total matched by Rachel with a 73 today. They were two shots clear of those who had completed the two qualifying rounds.
Burke, a 20-year-old golf scholarship student at Baylor University, Texas, had a double-bogey 5 on her card at the short sixth where her ball was up against the lip of bunker. She birdied the third and fourth. Curtis Cup reserve Jennings birdied the long third and long 11th in her steady round. She is going to college in Solihull for the next two years and may decide to have a go at turning professional after that.
South Africa's Tandi Cunningham poked fun at the testing back nine of North Berwick links making four birdies and not dropping one shot to par on her way to recording the best score of the day, a 71.
Scotland's Curtis Cup star, Michele Thomson, returned a 72 this morning and is delighted to improve on yesterday's performance.
Improved conditions – less wind and no rain, at least for the morning starters – led to a general improvement in the scores for the second qualifying round of the Ladies’ British Open amateur championship over the North Berwick links today.
Sweden’s 19-year-old Jacqueline Hedwall, whose twin sister Caroline was the overnight leader with a 68, set the early clubhouse target with a two-over-par 74 for 151.
Jacqueline starts a four-year golf scholarship at the Louisiana State University in the autumn while Caroline will be enrolling at Oklahoma State.
St Rule Trophy winner Kylie Walker (Buchanan Castle) had a 75 – a two-shot improvement on Wednesday – for a 36-hole tally of 152.
One shot behind her were Belen Mozo (Spain), Sahra Hassan (Vale of Glamorgan) and Lesley Nicholson (Haddington).
Mozo missed last year’s championship at Alwoodley, Leeds after completing the British girls’ and British ladies’ titles double in Northern Ireland in 2006.
She shaved five shots off her opening round with a 74 for 153.
Curtis Cup reserve Sarah Hassan (Vale of Glamorgan) made an even bigger improvement, coming down from 80 to 73 for 153.
Former Scottish women’s open stroke-play and past Scottish girls’ open stroke-play champion Lesley Nicholson (Haddington) followed up her first-round 79 with a 74 for 153.
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