 |
| Becky Brewerton |
Becky Brewerton completed a rare double when she shared first place with Thailand’s Nontaya Srisawang at the 2014 Ricoh Women’s Open Final Qualifying event at Southport & Ainsdale.
The Welsh former Solheim Cup player topped the leaderboard with a four under par 68 at last month’s Pre-Qualifier at the Berkshire and she repeated the feat with a superb six under par 68 at Final Qualifying on a bright but breezy day on England’s Golf Coast.
Brewerton began her round with two eagles in her first five holes and was eight under par after eleven holes before dropping two shots over the closing stretch.
“That is a good as I have played for a long time,” admitted the 31 year-old who finished third on the Ladies European Tour Henderson money list back in 2009. “It’s well known that my golf hasn’t been great for a while but I have been practising with (former European Tour player) Jamie Spence and he has helped me a lot.”
“He’s given me what you might call a men’s tour mentality. He’s encouraged me to stop thinking so much about technique and to concentrate more on getting round the golf course.
“We’ve also been working hard on my short game and that has helped a lot as well.”
“Today I had a couple of putts to get to ten under par which shows the improvement I have made,” she added. “It was a shame to drop the two shots coming home but by that time I had a good idea I was going to qualify so was trying to play as safe as possible.”
 |
| Nontaya Srisawang |
Srisawang carded a flawless 68 that included an eagle on the 5th and birdies on the 2nd, 9th, 10th and 11th. That left her tied alongside Brewerton and one shot ahead of Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow and England’s Holly Aitchison.
Meadow has enjoyed a dream start to her career since turning professional straight after the Curtis Cup. She finished third on her debut at last month’s US Women’s Open at Pinehurst No. 2 and then third again at last week’s ISPS Handa European Masters and now has a chance to keep that run going at the third ladies Major of the year.
At total of 15 players came through qualifying and earned places in the Ricoh Women’s British Open which starts at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.
Israeli amateur Laetitia Beck topped the qualifiers at last month’s Ladies British Open Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s and at Southport and Ainsdale she showed she is not out of place in the big league by sharing fifth place alongside New Zealand’s Cathryn Bristow, Australia’s Stephanie Na, and Sweden’s Louise Larsson on four under par 70.
America’s Katie Futcher and Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord shared ninth place of three under par 71 while World No. 5 ranked amateur, Su-Hyun Oh, from Australia, was tied for 11th place on 72 alongside compatriot Stacey Keating and English duo, Liz Young and Lauren Taylor.
A total of seven players contested a play-off for the last available place in the championship after Australia’s Bree Arthur, America’s Ryann O’Toole, Denmark’s Nicole Larsen, England’s Eleanor Givens, Japan’s Chie Arimura, England’s Lucy Williams and 2000 champion Sophie Gustafson all tied for 15th place on one under par 73 and in the end it went to Arthur who birdied the first extra hole to separate herself from her rivals.
