Georgia Hall Photo: Maria Beautell
England´s Georgia Hall moved to the top of the leader board after a first round of 66, 6 under par at the Open Generali de Strasbourg in France.
Hall teed off from the 10th tee, with birdies on the 13th, 16th and 17th to be out in 34 shots. Further birdies followed on the 2nd, 8th and 9th for a bogey free round. The young player credited her strong start to the event on solid iron play and consistent putting.
“My putting was good and my irons into the greens were pretty decent, I don’t think I missed many greens, maybe one or two.”
The 18-year-old will employ a similar game plan going into the second round.
“I will just try and do exactly the same tomorrow, try and take advantage of the par 5’s. Some of them you can nearly reach. My pace putting was good today, I will try to make sure I eliminate the bogeys as much as possible. I didn’t have a bogey today so try and do the same tomorrow. I’ll just stick to my game plan.”
Hall recently joined the LET Access Series and plans to play in six events, the minimum required to appear on the LETAS order of merit and therefore qualify for the LET exemptions awarded at the end of the season. She will be aiming for one of the five LET cards available for 2015 but would also be satisfied to qualify straight through to the final stage of the Lalla Aicha Tour School. A top 20 placing on the order of merit would see Hall achieve this goal.
Although she has received a few invitations to play on the Ladies European Tour this year, the remainder of the LET Access Series season is her focus.
“I had a great time last week in Tenerife, it was great to get an LET invite. I played well and I made the cut, I knew I was playing well but my long game wasn’t quite there and I managed to fix it yesterday. The goal is to get to final stage of Q School, which will make it a little easier.”
“It’s a bonus to play in the LET events but it’s more important for Access to get the ranking points and finish in the top 20.”
Finland’s Sanna Nuuiten shot an opening 67, 5 under par to lie in 2nd place, with five players, Daisy Nielsen from Denmark, Switzerland’s Hermione Fitzgerald, Belgian amateur Manon de Roey and France’s Caroline Afonso and Marion Veysseyre tied for 3rd at 4 under par.
The second round will commence at 8.30am on Friday from both the 1st and 10th tees.
