Catriona Matthew in the lead at the Ladies' Irish Open
The first round of the Ladies’ Irish Open is over and the results are in. Scotland’s Catriona Matthew is leading the event with a score of 67.
Matthew played a great game and dominated the field by her excellent putting. She started the round with a par and then went on to score a string of birdies that led to her high score.
When the event began, it was clear that Matthew will lead the leaderboard. Her performance in the front nine was amazing and she scored birdies on hole no. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.
With this performance on her scorecard, it was very clear that Matthew will have no difficulty on the back nine. However, the back nine was a tad disappointing as Matthew scored a birdie on the 15th hole.
She hit two bogeys at holes 17 and 18. She also hit a bogey on the 6th hole. These bogeys reduced her score by three strokes. This could come to haunt her in the coming rounds.
At the end of the first round, Matthew is leading with a margin of just one stroke. Pernilla Lindberg from Sweden is at 68 and will try her best to overcome the lead. She also played a great game and scored six birdies.
The third place went to the talented English golfer, Felicity Johnson. She is standing at 69. This deficit of just 2 strokes is nothing that a golfer of Johnson’s calibre cannot overcome.
Catriona Matthew is very pleased with her game in the first round. However, she is aware of her performance in the latter half of the round.
She said, “I played very steadily on the front nine and then just a silly three-putt on 18 for a bogey and I was out in one over. I made a good par on the first and then had seven birdies on the next eight holes and one bogey so kind of a strange nine but
I’ll take it. It’s always nice when you see the putts dropping in”.
The second round will prove to be more exciting as the players will attempt to close the narrow lead and move in for the first place.
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