Casandra Alexander carded a round of 68 (-4) to move into the top 10 at the 2024 AIG Women’s Open.
The South African secured her spot in the field on Monday coming through Final Qualifying at Crail Golf Society.
After an opening 73 (+1) around the Old Course at St Andrews, the 25-year-old came out firing on Friday to climb up the leaderboard.
Alexander rolled in birdies on the fifth, eighth and ninth holes to make the turn in three-under-par.
She then made another birdie on 10 before dropping a shot on 11, but then rolled in her final birdie of the day on 14 to sit in a share of fifth place on three-under-par.
“It was good, I started off in the rain when there wasn’t much wind then,” she said. “I tried to capitalise. I had a couple of putts, had a good feeling on the green and gave myself a lot of opportunities.
“I had so many lip-outs today. I played solid golf and gave myself opportunities. I hit 16 out of 18 greens, so I had a lot of birdie opportunities and eventually some do fall and that’s what happened. It was nice and tidy.
“It is a long week. It’s a little bit rushed because usually you use Monday to prepare, but you’re trying to qualify to get into the tournament and it’s been chaos since then. I’m quite looking forward to having the afternoon off and we’ll see how we go.”
This is Alexander’s first trip to the iconic St Andrews and she is looking forward to playing over the weekend.
She continued: “It’s pretty cool. I have never been out here, it’s really nice. You can feel the aura is different, it’s special. When we did get in, I said to Charlie [my caddie], I don’t want to come here to make the cut or fight to make the cut. I want to take part.
“It’s so easy to not be a top player in the world and fall into that, you can just go out and have a blast and see how you go. That has worked for me, I played solidly aggressive.
“It’s a major weekend at St Andrews, nothing more to be said.”
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