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China’s Xiyu Lin carded a superb seven under par 65 to top the leaderboard at the Ricoh Women’s British Open Final Qualifying tournament at Kingsbarns Golf Links.
The 17 year-old LET member from Guangzhou carded seven birdies in a flawless round to finish a single shot ahead of England’s Emily Taylor and Malene Jorgensen from Denmark as 16 players qualified for the Ricoh Women’s British Open which starts over the Old Course, St Andrews, on Thursday.
Lin started her round with three straight pars but then carded birdies at the 365-yard par-4 4th, the 350-yard par-4 5th, the 318-yard par-4 6th and the 500-yard par-5 9th to race to the turn in 32. She went on to complete the round with further birdies on the 335-yard par-4 14th, the 181-yard par-3 15th and the 476-yard par-5 16th to make it into her second women’s Major after also qualifying for the 2011 US Women’s Open.
On a low scoring day 18 year-old Taylor, the former English Girls’ Champion from Preston, dropped a shot on the opening hole at Kingsbarns but then recovered to post six birdies and come through the Final Qualifier for a second year in-a-row.
Taylor and Jorgensen both carded six under par rounds of 66 while Spain’s Marta Silva and Sydnee Michaels from America claimed a share of fourth place on five under par 67.
Two amateurs, Amy Boulden from Wales and Gabriella Cowley from England, carded rounds of 68 to qualifying alongside Sweden’s Daniela Holmqvist, Americans Laura Diaz and Dori Carter, Italy’s Margherita Rigon and Sahra Hassan from Wales, while Sweden’s Louise Larsson, Spain’s Tania Elosequi Scotland’s Carly Booth and Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth carded three under par rounds of 69 and then earned the last four places after a play-off. The unfortunate eight players to miss out over extra holes were English amateurs Bronte Law, Hayley Davis and Lauren Taylor, their compatriot Eleanor Givens, Spain’s Maria Hernandez, Sweden’s Karin Koch, American Mallory Fraiche and Israeli amateur Laetitia Beck. Taylor, the winner of the 2011 Ladies’ British Open Amateur champion aged just 16, is the first alternate for this year’s Championship.
Booth, the 2012 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Ladies Open champion, joins compatriot 2009 champion, Catriona Matthew in this week’s Championship but it was a different story for two other Scots, Pamela Pretswell and Kelsey Macdonald, who both carded two under par rounds of 70 to share 25th place alongside a large group that also included Canada’s Lori Kane and former Solheim Cup player, Maria Hjorth, from Sweden.
Other non-qualifiers included Australia’s Karen Lunn (71), Vikki Laing (72), Mel Reid (73), Cheyenne Woods (74) and Becky Brewerton (75).
