Hjorth leads Open but Irish stars hot in the hunt

SWEDEN’S Maria Hjorth, who included an eagle at the 12th and shot four birdies in a splendid five under par round of 67, is the leader after yesterday’s first round of the AIB Irish Women’s Open Championship at Killeen Castle, Co Meath.

She finished one ahead of England’s Melissa Reid with Scotland’s Carly Booth and the brilliant Korean In-Kyung Kim among a group of six on 69.

However, there was also much for Irish fans to enthuse over, with Rebecca Coakley dipping below par with a 71 while the skill and fighting qualities of the remarkable 15 year-old Maguire twins from Cavan, Leon and Lisa, were again apparent. Both shot rounds of even par 72 to tie for 25th and are ideally placed to join the top 60 and ties after today’s second round who go forward to the final round tomorrow.

A fine crowd turned up to watch in spite of a heavy mist and occasional heavy showers that made things pretty miserable for players and spectators alike and in the circumstances the scoring was of a commendably-high quality over the testing but beautifully laid-out Jack Nicklaus course close to the Hill of Tara in the royal county of Meath.

One of the major talking points after the morning round was the manner in which Leona Maguire came back from a potentially morale-shattering experience at her first hole, Killeen Castle’s tricky par 4 10th. She hit a poor drive into the wet, clinging rough and after finding sand with her second, thinned her recovery over the green to run up a double bogey six. However, seven successive pars followed before the youngster dropped further strokes at her 9th and 10th holes to stand four over for the round.

However, to her great credit, Leona settled to her task in style, capitalising on brilliant approach shots to the 2nd and 3rd (her 11th and 12th) before the highlight of the day came at her 14th where she rattled home a 35-footer. Even though she missed from five feet for a two after a smashing tee shot at the 6th, she made her 4th birdie courtesy of a cracking approach to less than a yard at the next before pitching to a foot from 70 yards for a great save on the testing 9th, her 18th.

2008 Irish Open champion and current world number four Suzann Petterssen of Norway said of her young partner, who outscored her by two shots: “I played with Leona in the practice round and she didn’t hit one shot like that tee shot at the 1st. Maybe the moment got to her. She’s a good golfer, she’s got a good game and is a hard worker. To come back as she did was very impressive.”

Leona didn’t seem at all fazed at playing with her illustrious partner, claiming she felt more “rushed than nervous” on the first tee before adding: “After that I settled a bit and was fine from there on. I started hitting the ball a little better off the tee and I got my iron shots dialled in a bit more and holed a few putts on the back nine. I had a few chances on the front nine that I didn’t take and they dropped on the back nine.

“Any time you shoot par around here is a good score and you’re always learning when playing with the professionals. I’m happy after being four over.”

Like her sister, Lisa also had to endure a major setback when taking three to recover from a bunker to card a double bogey six at the 6th. But she hit back immediately with a birdie at the next before a bogey at the 9th saw her to the turn in two over. She got those shots back with further birdies at the 11th and 13th and again showed just how tough she is by knocking in a difficult putt on the 18th having knocked her first from the top tier a good eight feet past the hole.

“I heard before going out that Leona had shot level par so I needed to do at least as well so that the bragging rights could be shared,” Lisa quipped. “I got off to a good start with a birdie at the 2nd but the tee shot to the 6th landed me in a lot of trouble. It was nice to get one back straight away and I kept hanging in until the two birdies coming home got me back to even par.”