AUGUSTA, Ga. — California teen Anna Davis birdied the par-5 closing gap at Champions Retreat and shared the lead with Alabama sophomore Benedetta Moresco of Italy at 2-under 70 on a tricky, windy begin on Wednesday to the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Novice.
Solely 5 gamers within the elite subject of amateurs from world wide managed to interrupt par.
Rose Zhang, the No. 1 newbie in girls’s golf and a number one favourite, struggled with the brand new greens on her solution to a 76. It was a tough begin, although scores have been so excessive Zhang hardly shot herself out of the event. She was two photographs under the reduce line.
The highest 30 from the 60-player subject after the second spherical Thursday at Champions Retreat advance to the ultimate spherical Saturday at Augusta Nationwide. A playoff decides the thirtieth spot in case of a tie
All gamers are allowed a follow spherical Friday on the residence of the Masters, even when they do not qualify for the ultimate spherical.
Davis, a 16-year-old from simply east of San Diego, is making her debut within the Augusta Girls’s Novice after two wins final yr, together with the Women Junior PGA Championship. She was strong in powerful scoring situations, dropping her solely shot on the fifteenth gap.
“Usually when I go to events, I know the people who are playing. And I don’t know many of the girls here,” Davis stated. “I kind of feel like an underdog. There’s not as much pressure on me.”
Moresco, who missed the reduce in Augusta final yr, did her work on the entrance 9 with three birdies, the final one on the par-3 eighth. She completed with 10 pars.
“I enjoy playing in the wind. I played in Europe and like all the European tournaments up in England. I had a great like training there,” Moresco stated.
Michigan junior Hailey Borja, Xiaowen Yin of China and Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden have been one shot behind.
Lindblad, a junior at LSU, shared the 36-hole lead with Zhang final yr and completed one shot out of a playoff gained by Tsubasa Kajitani of Japan.
Zhang is a former U.S. Girls’s Novice and a U.S. Junior Women champion, a winner of 4 straight tournaments she performed final fall. The Stanford freshman went out in 38, birdied the tenth, however then ran off 4 bogeys over the subsequent six holes. She closed by making a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th.
“Today was just a little bit rough,” Zhang stated. “It was hard to get my numbers right. Whenever I hit a really good shot it would be a very unlucky bounce. The greens today were tough to read for me. There’s a lot to work on.”
Zhang is amongst 9 gamers who’ve competed yearly since for the reason that event started in 2019, and one in every of 4 gamers who’ve reached the ultimate spherical at Augusta Nationwide annually. She wasn’t alone in her struggles.
One other was Erica Shepherd, who had two double bogeys and 5 bogeys in her spherical of 79.
Two others, Emma Spitz of UCLA and Beatrice Wallin of Florida State, every opened with a 73 and have been tied for ninth.
