Photograph courtesy of Tristan Jones Photography/LET

New South Wales amateur Doey Choi showed her more experienced and credentialled rivals how it was done at the Pacific Bay Resort Australian Ladies Classic Bonville today, shooting a personal best 6-under par round of 66 to take the first round lead.

Choi teed off this morning in heavy showers at Bonville Golf Resort and was quickly into her stride with a birdie 3 at the difficult opening hole. The 18-year-old proceeded to make another 7 birdies in her round, offset with bogeys at the 7th and 17th holes.

Choi, who plays out of Concord Golf Club in Sydney, had a sensational amateur season in 2018 but said she had few expectations coming into this week after not playing her best golf at last week’s ISPS Handa Australian Women’s Open,

\"I didn`t play good at all last week in Adelaide, I haven`t been hitting it great so it was really nice to play some solid golf today.\"

The laid back youngster said she was looking forward to the next three days,

\"There will be more pressure on me for sure, but I just want to try to play three solid rounds.\"

In second place at 4 under par are the Swedish pair of European Solheim Cup star Madelene Sagstrom and compatriot Daniela Holmqvist, who also featured on the leaderboard here one year ago. 

Pre-tournament favourite West Australian Hannah Green had another solid day at the office shooting a 3 under par round of 69, putting her in a tie for fourth place and in great shape for the rest of the week,

The West Australian made a flying start with consecutive birdies on her first two holes, the ninth and the 10th and she moved to three-under with a birdie on the long 14th, before dropping shots on 16 and 17,  only to recover late with birdies on the fourth and the seventh.

“It was a bit up and down. I had a couple of bogeys out there due to 3-putting, but then I also holed some really good putts as well. Overall I’m happy with how I struck the ball today and I hit a lot of greens, which put me in the position to have some birdie putts. Hopefully I can continue that momentum throughout the week.\"

“The course held up really well with the rain, so you didn’t have to worry about any water puddles. The course is really good and the greens are really nice.\"

“It wasn’t causing me trouble, but then it was frustrating to have it sometimes rain quite hard and then all of a sudden nothing and then the sun came down, so it was really humid.”

Local favourite Sarah Kemp continued her hot form of the past two weeks shooting a 1-under par71 to be well within striking distance with three rounds to go. 

The field will be cut to 60 professional players plus ties after tomorrow`s second round.

For live scoring click HERE

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