Céline Boutier delighted the home crowds with an opening 7-under 65 that handed her a three-shot lead at the Olympic women’s golf competition.
With big galleries gathered for the first round at Le Golf National on Wednesday, world No. 7 Boutier was inspired as she recorded eight birdies and one bogey to make a dream start in her medal pursuit. Her total equalled the lowest first-round score at the Olympics, matching efforts by Ariya Jutanugarn in 2016 and Madelene Sagstrom at Tokyo 2020.
The Frenchwoman, who won her first major last year on home soil at The Amundi Evian Championship, dropped just a single shot on Wednesday en route to reaching 7-under. She leads the way over South African major winner Ashleigh Buhai.
Boutier made three front-nine birdies before back-to-back gains after the turn saw her move into the solo lead. After finding a fairway bunker off the tee at the 12th, the 30-year-old dropped her lone shot of the day on the par 4.
But that only appeared to refocus her mind as she then reeled off three consecutive birdies from the 14th through to the 16th, highlighted by a chip-in at the par-3 16th hole. The French star then parred the final two holes before receiving a great ovation from the waves of fans assembled around the 18th green.
“It can always be better with golf. But, no, I’m really over the moon with the way the tournament started for me. I definitely wasn’t sure what to expect today, but I was able to take advantage of a few opportunities out there, so I feel good about my round and hopefully, I will keep going for the next few days,” Boutier said, adding that the amount of support and attention was a little out of her comfort zone.
“It’s definitely challenging, and it’s definitely not something I’m really used to from what I usually experience on the LPGA. So it’s nice to have that much support. I definitely think that coming last weekend, being able to watch some of the men’s round and their tee shots and stuff first definitely helped me out just because I was able to kind of see the support and the crowd that they got and was able to help prepare myself for today and for the rest of the week.
“So it’s definitely challenging, but I try to focus on my game. And it’s such a tough course that you have to focus on your game. You can’t just look around and, you know, laugh with the crowd. So it’s definitely nice to have some support, but you definitely have to focus out there.”
Buhai, who, like Boutier, is competing in her second Games after making her debut at Rio 2016, mixed five birdies with one bogey to card a 68. She grabbed birdies on the seventh and ninth holes to turn in 2-under, and Buhai was then flawless on the back nine, as a pair of birdies at the 13th and 14th helped her post a 4-under.
Major champion Buhai said: “I’m very happy with the way I played. I committed to my shots well, which is
what you have to do around the golf course. And it’s not just about going at the flags, you’ve got to hit it to your areas and zones, I like to say, and be aggressive to that and I think I did that very well today.
“It was amazing. Celine was two groups in front of us, so we kind of had the crowds all around. There were South Africans out there with some flags too. So it was cool to have that support.”
World No. 2 Lilia Vu, who pre-tournament said a gold medal would trump her two major wins, sits in a tie for third at 2-under in a four-strong group of players that also includes Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and Colombia’s Mariajo Uribe.
Six players share seventh place with Norway’s Celine Borge, China’s Xiyu Lin, Indian’s Diksha Dagar, Australian Minjee Lee, Japan’s Miya Yamashita and Canadian Alena Sharp all a stroke further back.
After a slow start that saw her bogey three of her opening seven holes, world No. 1 Nelly Korda recovered well to kick off her gold medal defense at Le Golf National with an even-par 72.
Perrine Delacour of France hit the opening tee shot at 9 a.m. but later said the experience drained her and contributed to a disappointing 7-over 79.
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