Five tied for lead at English Open

7/4/2008

Oxfordshire, England – English duo Melissa Reid and Natalie Booth share the first round lead with Sweden’s Emma Zackrisson, Australia’s Joanne Mills and Italian Margherita Rigon at the Ladies English Open.

The five players tied on four-under-par 68 after a sunny but breezy day at The Oxfordshire Golf Club near Thame.

Booth, 25, from New Milton in Hampshire, set the pace with a 68 in the calmer morning conditions. She was joined by Zackrisson, Mills and Rigon, who also played in the morning.

Reid, the leading rookie on the Ladies European Tour, played in stronger winds in the afternoon. After a dream start to her round, with an eagle and a birdie in her first three holes, she had a chance to take the outright lead but bogeyed her last hole, the par-four ninth.

Reid hopes to seal her first professional victory on home turf this week and she has come close on several occasions already. Her best finish was second at last month’s ABN AMRO Ladies Open in Holland, where she finished one shot behind the winner. She was also third at the MFS Women’s Australian Open in February.

Zackrisson claimed her maiden tour title at the Ladies Spanish Open in April, while Mills took last year’s S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe, played at Machynys Peninsula G&CC, a similar golf course.

Foto - Zuzana Kamasova SVK

Leaderboard – Round 1:

1.  Natalie Claire Booth               ENG  68 - 4
     Emma Zackrisson                 SWE  68 - 4
     Joanne Mills                         AUS  68 - 4
     Margherita Rigon                   ITA  68 - 4
     Melissa Reid                         ENG  68 - 4
6.  Elizabeth McKinnon                NZL  69 - 3
     Marina Arruti                         ESP  69 - 3
8.  Frederique Seeholzer             SWI  70 - 2
     Kiran Matharu                       ENG  70 - 2
     Carly Booth  (am.)                SCO  70 - 2
     Martina Gillen                        IRL  70 - 2
     Karen Lunn                           AUS  70 - 2
     Anna Tybring                        SWE  70 - 2
     Kirsty S. Taylor                      ENG  70 - 2
     Julie Greciet                          FRA  70 - 2

16. Zuzana Kamasová  SVK  71 - 1

Source: Ladies European Tour