USA Opens 4-Stroke Lead In First Round of Women’s World Amateur Team
The USA celebrates. Jessica Korda (l) high fives
Cydney Clanton after each posted a 68 in the first round
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Oct, 20, 2010) – The USA forged a four-stroke lead over Argentina and France with a record-setting 8-under-par 136 in the first round of the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.
USA Curtis Cup teammates Jessica Korda, 17, and Cydney Clanton, 21, both shot 4-under-par 68 at the par-72 Olivos Golf Club to combine for a the lowest first-round in the history of the championship. The previous low first-round score was 137 by Canada in 2004 and Japan and Sweden in 2008.
“I am exceedingly proud of the way these young women played,” said USA captain Roberta Bolduc. “They stayed patient and played brilliantly. I am ordering three more rounds like that.”
Also playing at Olivos Golf Club, France was bolstered by the day’s low round, a 5-under-par 67 by Alexandra Bonetti and shared second-place with Argentina at 4-under-par 140.
The 68 from Korda, the 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up, was bogey free. Clanton, a collegiate All-American at Auburn University, fired five birdies against one bogey. The third member of the USA team, 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Danielle Kang, shot 70 on her 18th birthday. Although her score did not count, it matched the lowest non-counting score in championship history.
“We wanted to be in the reds (numbers),” Kang said. To which Korda echoed: “Under par counts.”
The USA, which last won the competition for the Espirito Santo Trophy in 1998 in Chile, took advantage of optimum scoring conditions in the day’s first three starting times with Argentina and Portugal.
“They are great players with great swings,” captain Federico McNeil of Argeninta said of the USA. “There is no par 5 for them.” Both Korda and Clanton birdied three of the four par-5s at Olivos Golf Club.
Argentina posted a pair of 2-under-par 70s from Manuela Carbajo Re and Victoria Tanco, who was named the American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year.
“We have three players playing at a very good level,” McNeil said. “We need a find a great week on the greens.”
Chinese Taipei , Germany, South Africa and Spain tied for fourth place at 2-under-par 142. Mexico was eighth at 1-under-par 143, followed by Ireland, Canada, Israel, and the Philippines in ninth position at even-par 144. Defending champion Sweden was tied for 16th place at 146.
For complete results, visit www.internationalgolffederation.org and click on the Golfstat icon.
Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises national governing bodies of golf in more than 120 countries, the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship is a biennial international amateur competition, which is rotated among three geographic zones: Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe-Africa. This year the event is hosted by the Asociacion Argentina de Golf. The teams play for the Espirito Santo Trophy.
Each team has two or three players and plays 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores by players from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72 holes) total is the team’s score for the championship.
The Women’s World Amateur Team Championship is being played at Olivos Golf Club (par 36-36—72, 6,110 yards, 5,584 meters) and Buenos Aires Golf Club (par 36-36—72, 6,110 yards, 5,588 meters).
ABOUT THE Women's World Amateur Team
In 1958 the United States Golf Association asked
The R&A to join them in sponsoring a world-wide
amateur golf team event to be played biennially
in non-Walker Cup years. Between 35 and 40
nations were represented at the first meeting
and President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented
the trophy which bears his name. The committee
of the event was to be known as the World
Amateur Golf Council and is now the
International Golf Federation. Teams of four
players from each country competed over 72
holes with the leading three scores from each
round to count. The first competition was held
between 29 nations at St Andrews, with Australia
beating the United States in a play-off. In 2002
the format changed to teams of three with the
two leading scores to count.
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