After posting a round of 69 which kept her very much in touch at the end of the first round of the RICOH Women’s British Open Moriya Jutanugarn had a simple birthday wish… to get even with her younger sister.
A three-under-par tally on Woburn’s Marquess Course was a pretty decent way to mark turning 22, placing her just outside the top 10. However it still left her trailing 20-year-old Ariya who had left a birthday message on departing the apartment they are sharing in Woburn, but then marked the day rather more selfishly by sending another to the rest of the field.
“When I woke up my sister had already left because she had a really early tee time. It was funny. She wrote on a tissue ‘Happy birthday Mo’ and left it on a little bag (that contained) a very nice birthday gift,” said Moriya.
Albeit slightly envious, the Thai woman was pleased, too, by her sibling’s fine round of 65 which set the early pace before Korea’s Mirim Lee cruised into the lead with a spectacular 10-under-par 62 later in the day.
“I saw her (Ariiya) on the leaderboard. I wish I was on there,” Moriya admitted.
“But I’m really happy for her. She keeps playing well but I’ll try to catch her.”
Like Mark Waugh, one of Australia’s greatest ever batsmen but the less successful cricketer in a pair of twins, or Jonathan Brownlee, one of the world’s greatest ever triathletes who is apparently destined always to play a support role to his older brother, Moriya can be forgiven for experiencing some frustration in spite of what might best be described as her relative success. Winner of the prestigious LPGA ‘Rookie of the year’ award in 2013 she had previously been setting the on course example until her little sister suddenly found her form earlier this season.
The only woman to win on the LPGA Tour in May, following her debut success with two more and Ariya acknowledged that her chances of claiming a first ‘major’ had been hugely boosted by the choice of venue for this event, the first time in eight years it has not been staged on a links course.
“Actually I don’t really like links courses,” she observed afterwards.
“I think it’s too hard for me to win on links. When I saw this course I liked it. It’s like the Canadian Open last year.”
That message was reinforced by her American playing partner Stacy Lewis who came in with a fine 67 of her own.
“I love majors. I love this major. Not necessarily this type of golf course, but I love this championship,” said the 31-year-old who won it at St Andrews three years ago.
“It just doesn’t feel like a British Open at all. It’s more like a Canadian Open than a British Open. I would prefer the links because I love the links-style golf.”
Lewis ended the day as the only non-Asian in the top five with Lee leading the way by getting off to an even faster start than Phil Mickelson managed in the men’s equivalent event earlier in the month by registering 10 birdies to pull three clear.
The Korean 25-year-old has very recent previous for this sort of thing, shooting a pace-setting opening 64 at the US Women’s Open earlier this month, before faltering in the second round which she took 10 more shots to negotiate on her way to an 11th placed finish so as she rightly observed: “Everything was perfect but it’s still just the first round.”
Things were less smooth for China’s Shanshan Feng who almost made a disastrous mistake before hitting a ball in anger, miscalculating the time it would take to get from the practise ground to the course to the extent that as her playing partners were teeing off she was jumping off a buggy to run the last 50 yards to the tee before shouting ‘I’m here!’ in narrowly avoiding disqualification. It did not put her off her game as she finished with a 66 to claim third spot.
With another Korean, Mi Hyang Lee, matching Lewis’s 67, the first day’s evidence was that Catriona Matthew looks set to retain her status as this tournament’s only European winner since 2004.
With Kylie Walker and Pamela Pretswell, her only compatriots in the field, among the stragglers, Scotland’s leading player admitted it might have taken her too long to waken up as she set out at 7.03 am and struggled to the turn in 38, before holing a 30-foot putt at the 11th brought her to life and she managed three more birdies on her way to finishing on 70.
Of the British professionals only her Olympic team-mate Charley Hull, playing at her home club, fared better, the 20-year-old finishing with birdies at the last two holes to finish on 69, contrasting starkly with her playing partner in the day’s most watched match as New Zealand’s world number one Lydia Ko finished with a brace of bogeys for a 74 that leaves her struggling to make the cut.
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