Cavan golfer Leona Maguire has opened her account at the European Masters with an impressive round of 69, leaving her three under par.
Maguire, the world’s top-ranked female amateur, shot four birdies and one bogey to leave her three strokes behind the leader, Sophie Giquel-Bettan of France.
The Duke University student is playing on a sponsor’s invitation for the event, which is being held at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club, outside London.
Giquel-Bettan fired a first-round 66 to take a first-round one-shot lead ahead of South African Ashleigh Simon, Italian Sophie Sandolo, Josephine Janson of Sweden and Nontaya Srisawang from Thailand.
“It was a great day,” said Giquel-Bettan, after picking up four birdies on the back nine followed by a bogey and three more birdies on the front nine at Buckinghamshire Golf Club.
“Yesterday I played the Pro-Am and it was 36 degrees. It was so hot and this morning it was 20, 22C with just a little breeze, so perfect conditions.”
Simon, the joint runner-up behind Karrie Webb in 2013, had an eagle, four birdies and a bogey in her 67. She said: “I got off to a nice steady start and birdied my third hole of the day. I eagled the par-five 14th after I holed a nice bomb from the back of the green and gave myself some nice chances coming in and birdied 17 and made a good par on 18.
"All of the par fives are pretty much reachable so if you play those well you can be four under. It was a steady start.”
