In the 74-year history of the US Women’s Open, only five European golfers have finished first. Only two of them – Dame Laura Davies and Alison Nicholas – are from the UK.
At the end of the first day at the Champions Club outside of Houston, the leaderboard looks familiar. Of the 23 members of the 156 women’s field who topped the Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit courses, 15 are American or Asian.
Amy Olson produced a best-of-day four-under-67 (including a hole in one at the 139 yard par 3-16 course). In the midst of the home players and the inevitable flood of Far Eastern stars, there was a 69-strong quartet of players from the “Old World”. Swedish amateur Linn Grant and British Women’s Open Champion Sophia Popov both shot under the longer and (a little over a shot) more difficult) Cypress Creek layout. Charley Hull and another Swede, Linnea Strom, broke 70 on the Jackrabbit course.
The amateurs Pauline Roussin-Bouchard from France and Maja Stark from Sweden are just as below average as the three-time Solheim Cup player Jodi Ewart Shadoff. Of these, perhaps Hull and Popov are best qualified to make further progress. Hull – 10th and 16th in the last two US Women’s Open – has been shown to be of the highest caliber, as evidenced by her four birdie and two bogey efforts.
Popov, meanwhile, wasn’t entirely happy with some of their tee-to-green games. “I shot a lot of good shots,” she said. “But I also had to crawl very well. I’ve made mistakes here and there that I could have avoided. Overall, however, it was only very solid. And I did the putts that I had to do. “Just as happy was Grant, whose dedication was the best of the 23 amateurs in the field under 70.
Elsewhere, however, the European news was nowhere near as optimistic. As always with great championship golf, the disaster was easy to find. Take Georgia Hall. The 2018 British Open Champion’s 10-over-81 at Cypress Creek contained no less than six bogies and two doubles – and not a birdie.
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