Minjee Lee during her first round – image Ladies European Tour
Just a few players were still to complete their opening rounds of the ISPS Women’s Scottish Open at the Dundonald Links in Ayrshire in Scotland. But when rain then eventually darkness stopped play at 9.00pm Minjee Lee led the way with an opening round of 5 under 67.
“Yeah, I mean, I feel like I played pretty solid today,” said Lee perhaps stating the obvious.
“No bogeys today. So always a happy girl after a bogey-free round. So yeah, I feel like I played smart golf, I’d say. I gave myself a lot of opportunities for birdie, but you know some putts went in, some putts didn’t.
“I feel like when I was in trouble, I kind of missed it in the right spots and could get up-and-down, so that was good.
“I think I kind of got a little lucky with not playing in the morning with the rain but it was pretty windy out there. So I guess we just didn’t have the rain. But yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed my day out there today.
“I like the creativity of links golf. You know, obviously there was a lot of wind today so it was playing like a true links kind of golf course. Sometimes we don’t get as much wind but today was blowing a gale and I feel like just picturing the shots and just having to execute those shots, I think I find it fun to play.
“Just when you execute it correctly, you get rewarded. So I like that aspect of playing in the wind and obviously there’s a lot of things like if you’re off the green, you can putt or chip or you can hit a hybrid. There’s so many options. I also think that’s kind of fun as well.”
Amongst the chasers and just two off the lead is last week’s Gold Medallist in Paris, Lydia Ko. Ko recorded as many birdies as Lee but two bogeys saw her finish with 69 and in a share of 5th place.
“I think it was crucial to make a few up-and-downs, especially on my front nine because there weren’t many greens that I hit I would say in the first few holes,” said ko referring to the demanding conditions.
“I’ve played in sunny but I’ve played in a bit of bad weather. I was trying to go through some of the worst British Opens I’ve ever played. Hoylake was really horrible in 2012. Even when we were at Troon just down the road here a few years ago, that was really bad, where I had to play with my hat backwards.
So yeah, I think when you come here, obviously like at the British Open last year, we had beautiful weather at Walton Heath. So we could potentially expect that but we could expect the weather that we had this morning and that’s just part of the experience of coming over. If you don’t like it, you’re probably not going to play that good, anyway.
“But luckily since the wind was so strong the two par 5s on the front nine were reachable and I could take advantage of that. But it was almost so hectic that I think I was having more like fun out there rather than getting so stressed.”
This week’s event comes ahead of next week’s AIG Women’s Open at the Old Course at St Andrews.
Gabi Ruffels and Stephanie Kyriacou also managed to finish their rounds, both with one under par 71’s.
