Mehaffey steadies ship after poor start

Two double bogeys in the first three holes prevented teenage sensation Olivia Mehaffey from being among the leaders after the first round of the European Ladies Amateur Championship in Estonia yesterday.

The 16-year-old Irish girls’ champion from Royal County Down took six on both the second and third and had a bogey five on the seventh. But she did card birdies at six and 18 for a round of 75.

That put her eight strokes adrift of leader Nuria Iturrios and seven behind French star Celine Boutier.