France’s Agathe Sauzon set the pace with a five-under-par 66 on the first morning of the Jabra Ladies Open at Evian Resort Golf club.
The 32-year-old from Valence was one stroke clear of Morgane Metraux from Switzerland, with four further players in the clubhouse on three-under-par: Johanna Gustavsson, Nastasia Nadaud, Celine Herbin and Ana Belac.
“I was really solid with all my irons,” said Sauzon, who lives three hours south of the venue. “My driving wasn’t on point, but I didn’t miss too badly either. I made a lot of putts from around two metres, which was nice on this course.
“I know this course really well, because when I was between 10-14 years old, we had some regional golf camps here. I lived in Evian-les-Bains for two years around five years ago, so it’s always nice to be here.”
Sauzon made a birdie on her first hole, followed by another on the ninth. After making a bogey on the 12th, she quickly recovered by sinking a “nice putt from five metres” on the 13th. She then made further gains on the 15th, 16th and par-5 18th holes.
Her approach to the green using her 9-iron from 117 metres on 18 was her favourite shot of the day and she made the putt from one-and-a-half metres on the remodelled hole, which features a larger pond below the right side of the green.
From there, she birdied the first hole and bogeyed the short downhill second before closing with three steady pars, finishing on the par-3 fifth, which has also been remodelled over the last three months with a larger lake between the tee and green.
“I like the new layout. On the 18th, the green looks wider, but you have to be careful because the water is more in play now. You don’t have a flat spot on the fairway. It’s always running downhill towards the pond,” she said.
“They changed the fifth hole as well with a bigger lake and it also looks wider, because they cut the tree from the right side of the green. The green looks a bit bigger from the tee, which is a good change.”
The winner of the Jabra Ladies Open will qualify to play in the only major championship in continental Europe at the same venue in seven weeks’ time.
“I have never played in the Amundi Evian Championship. I have played in majors, twice in the AIG Women’s Open, but this one is my favourite and I would love to play in it. That would be a good goal, for sure,” she smiled.
Another fairly local player, Metraux, from near Lausanne, the opposite side of Lake Geneva from Evian, fired five birdies and one bogey on the first day.
She said: “I love this place. It always brings the best stuff out of me, so I was really excited to play this week. I played really steady golf. I wasn’t happy about all of my shots, but I was always in play, in good positions and I made a few putts. It was a very steady, controlled round.
“The layout changes are great. It looks really clean now. 18 had some long grasses which made it difficult to see if you had passed the lake or not. Now you can see everything. It doesn’t make that much of a different in terms of playing it, you just have to lay up slightly shorter but it’s still a wedge.”
Nadaud also used local knowledge to her advantage. The 19-year-old from Chambery, who plays at Golf Club Aix-les-Bains 1895, said: “This is like my second home club, so I think that helped. Some of the members of my home club followed me around today.
“I’m happy with how I played. It was very steady. On this course you need to hit fairways and greens and focus on hitting your zones, which I did well today.”
