Perth’s Kristen Rudgeley leads Open de Espana
Kirsten Rudgeley during the second round – image LET
West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley is a surprise leader at the Open de Espana in Andalucia, the 22 year old moving two shots ahead of a group of five golfers heading into the weekend in the final event of the 2023 Ladies European Tour schedule.
The British-born but Australian raised since the age of 4, Rudgeley, currently 43rd in the Race to Costa Del Sol ranking in her rookie LET year with three top tens to her name, is playing her 20th event of the season. Her best finish this season came when 4th at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
“It was good, again I played really steady golf,” said Rudgeley. “I holed some good putts, missed some putts but that’s just golf and I’m just going to keep going and see what happens.
“The wind definitely wasn’t there this afternoon as much as it was yesterday, but some of those pins made up for it. If I walk past a leaderboard, I will have a look, but it doesn’t really bother me either way. I just play my own game and see what happens.
“I just play golf and you can’t do anything about it, so you just have to keep playing and see what happens. The target to make as many birdies as possible is always a good target, but we’ll see. I want to play golf, enjoy it and take it all in.”
Rudgeley is perhaps aided by having a family member of the bag this week.
“I have my uncle on the bag which is really nice, and we just went for a walk and chatted the whole way around. He knows absolutely zero about golf! I don’t think too much when I’m out there but it’s always good having family on the bag.”
