England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Wei-Ling Hsu from Chinese Taipei have seized the lead on day one at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, after shooting opening rounds of 65 at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide today

Ewart Shadoff, 31, a seven-year LPGA Tour player, backed up her top-10 finish at last week`s ISPS Handa Vic Open with a brilliant bogey-free opening round in the perfect morning conditions, while Hsu made 8 birdies and a bogey at the par 4 3rd hole on route to her 65 playing in the more difficult breezy afternoon wave. 

Australian legend Karrie Webb is also nicely-poised after opening with a superb five-under par 67. Webb set the early tone with four birdies on the back nine having started from the 10th tee and was clearly delighted and relieved to get off to a good start this week in just her second professional tournament start in almost eight months.

\"Yeah, I`m really pleased with it.   I got off to a really great start early this morning.  You know, I hit some good shots and saw some putts go in, so I felt really comfortable there for about 11 holes\"

\"Then it got a little scratchy there through the middle, but I hung in there and managed to birdie the 8th, which was my second last hole, which is a nice way to finish.\"

\"Just getting off to a good start.  It`s not easy to get off to a good start and be in position from day one and not feel like you`re catching up on Friday.\"

When asked if she had been buoyed by the support of the home galleries who had set an early alarm to watch the 44-year-old tee off at 7:44 am this morning the Queenslander said,

\"Yeah, yeah, and the sun came out, it started to warm up and so did the crowds.  It`s a beautiful day out here and it`s good to see so many people out.\"

Webb said that she had felt very comfortable on her front 9 but not as free on her back 9,

\"Yeah, I hit some poor iron shots,  the one on 7 was really poor.  I put myself in a good position off the tee and I was worried about the miss left and hit it way right.  it was just mental error really.  The swing didn`t feel quite as good as it did early on, so happy to still shoot 1 under on the back nine

Webb said that in all she was very happy with her start to the tournament,

 \"Yeah, it is good.  And I made the most of the opportunities I had, so that was good\"

Webb is searching for an unprecedented sixth national crown this week in Adelaide, her previous National Open titles have come in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2014.

English Solheim Cup star Jodi Ewart-Shadoff also made the most of her early tee time and the perfect scoring conditions this morning finding herself seven-under par through 13 holes before parring her way in signing for a 65.

The 31-year-old is currently ranked 59th in the Rolex Women`s World rankings but has yet to win a tournament as a professional. 

Ewart Shadoff and Hsu lead by two shots from Webb, England`s Bronte Law and Swede Madelene Sagstrom who all sit at five-under par, with a group of six players at 4-under par including with last year’s champion, South Korea’s Jin-Young Ko, Australian Hannah Green and Thai Moriya Jutanugarn.

Round 2 action will get underway tomorrow at 7:00 am at The Grange Golf Club.

For live scoring click HERE

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