Quartet share ANZ Masters lead

ALPG Tour | 2009 ANZ Ladies Masters | Round One | 05 Feb 2009

Welsh golfer Becky Brewerton grabbed a share of the first round lead at the ANZ Ladies Masters in Australia on Thursday.

She and three others opened with five-under-par 67s, upstaging the likes of world No.2 Yani Tseng, who shot 71, world No.5, Jiyai Shin who had 69 and the six-time event champion Karrie Webb. 

The 26-year-old Solheim Cup player shared pole position with Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord, South African Lee-Anne Pace and South Korean Il-Hee Lee, who were all flawless with five birdies apiece.

Starting her round at the 10th hole, Brewerton reeled off five birdies over the back nine and turned in 30. She recovered from a double bogey six at the second hole with back-to-back birdies for an inward total of 37, even par.

The 2007 Ladies English Open champion is making her fourth appearance at Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast in Queensland, where she shot an opening round of 66 in 2007 before finishing tied for eighth behind Webb.

“This is one of my favourite courses and I’ve done quite well here. I’ve got good memories and it suits my game well. If you can drive it long and straight you’ve got a real advantage,” Brewerton said.  

Brewerton recorded eight top ten finishes last season and was 15th on the New Star Money List for the third time running.  She has been working hard over the winter in an attempt to bring her game up to the next level and has been put through her paces by her new fitness trainer Steve Bond.

She cited a stronger mental approach as the key to overcoming the double bogey she took after snap hooking her ball into the root of a tree.

“I think before if I had made a mistake like that I would have given myself too hard a time and ended up on one or two under when I should have been at least five under. In situations like that the work I have been doing has definitely helped,” she said.   

The 22-year-old Skarpnord equalled Brewerton’s 67 with three birdies on the front nine and two on the back. Her best finish was runner up to world No.4 Suzann Pettersen at the AIB Ladies Irish Open in July last year.

Pace, who will turn 28 later this month, was the sole leader to have played in the breezier, but warm, afternoon conditions. Her best finish on tour was a tie for fourth at the SAS Ladies Masters in Norway last year.

Lee, another talented player from the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA), was runner-up to Shin in the Woori Ladies Tournament early last year. The 20-year-old started her round at the 10th and turned in 32 before picking up two more birdies coming home.

She is known as one of the dragon ladies having been born in the year of the dragon. Like many of her generation her idol is Se Ri Pak.

A further four players finished the day a shot back in joint fifth place: Spaniard Carmen Alonso, South Korean Hye Youn Kim, South African Stacy Lee Bregman and Finn Ursula Wikstrom.

Last year’s European No.1 Gwladys Nocera finished on three-under along with eight other players including Shin and Australia’s Katherine Hull. World No.9 Webb battled to a two-under 70 after torrential rain in Northern Queensland meant she had little practise in recent weeks.

Source – LET