Ireland’s Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow had nightmare starts to the Olympics golf tournament at Le Golf National to leave them well adrift of leader and home favourite Céline Boutier.
The duo shot six-over-par rounds of 78 to lie 13 shots behind Boutier and are tied 50th of 60 participants, with only four players in the field shooting a worse score on a frustrating day in Paris.
Maguire went out in 43 shots for her first nine holes, a double bogey on the first hole and a triple bogey on the ninth hole proving particularly costly on an error-strewn day. Birdies at the 12th, the 16th, where she holed a 28-foot putt for birdie, and the 18th, where she made the green in two on the par 5, were mixed in with bogeys on the 15th and 17th.
Meanwhile, Meadow’s only birdie of the day was on the 18th in a round without major disasters, but seven bogeys left her with a mountain of work to do to get into medal contention.
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“It’s just one of those courses where you’ve got to be in the short stuff,” Meadow said. “That hurt me today but I did some good things too, so hopefully I can take those positives and move it on to the next three days.”
Maguire and Meadow are at least only eight shots behind a bronze medal on a difficult day where only 12 players were under par. That made French Major winner Boutier’s round extra special in front of a buoyant home crowd.
The 30-year-old’s seven-under-par 65 including eight birdies and a single dropped shot. She is three shots clear of South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai on four under, while Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, Colombia’s Mariajo Uribe and Lilia Vu of the United States are on two under. World number one Nelly Korda is on level par.
