Sport

Women blown off course at Hoylake

WOMEN’S BRITISH OPEN : The final Major of the golfing season descended into near-farce at windswept Hoylake yesterday when players…

Sat Sept 15 2012 - 01:00

WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN: The final Major of the golfing season descended into near-farce at windswept Hoylake yesterday when players at the course found themselves battling with conditions former winner Karen Stupples described as "laughable".

But good sense prevailed – in gusts that reached up to 60mph the second round was suspended after 78 minutes, all recorded scores were cancelled and the championship will resume at 6.50am tomorrow.

Stupples, England’s last winner of the title in 2004, was among 48 players who teed off. She actually birdied the downwind second – “it felt like an eagle” – but it came either side of a double bogey and she was by no means the worst.

Compatriot Felicity Johnson, joint leader early in the first round, dropped to next-to-last on 14 over par when she ran up a quintuple bogey nine at the first, bogeyed the second and double-bogeyed the third. The forecast is for the wind speed to drop overnight.In an effort to finish it was announced that the cut will be to the leading 50 and ties rather than the usual 65.

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EUROPEAN TOUR QUALIFYING: It was a remarkable one-two for Ireland in the European Tour School's qualifying phase stage one at The Roxburghe Hotel in Scotland yesterday with Mark Staunton and Peter O'Keeffe occupying the top two spots.

Staunton, the 30-year-old from Ballinasloe, led from the start of the event on Tuesday and finished with a solid one-under-par 71 yesterday for a 72-hole aggregate of 276 and a yawning eight-stroke cushion over Muskerry-based O’Keeffe. Staunton could afford the luxury of two bogeys in the last three holes and still demolish his rivals.

Waterville’s Mark Murphy scraped through to the next stage on the cut-off mark after closing with a level-par 72 for 291.

Belfast’s Damien Mooney did fall by the wayside after he slipped to a 74 yesterday for a 294 total, missing out by three strokes.

IRISH SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN:Helen Jones fell away disappointingly in the third and final round of the Irish Senior Women's Open at Royal Belfast yesterday and Finland's Minna Kaarnalahti was able to comfortably retain her title.

Jones slumped to an 85 for a 54-hole aggregate of 247 and had to be content with fourth place.

Kaarnalahti closed with a steady 76 for a 238 total and cantered to a five-stroke victory over the experienced international Sheena McElroy from Grange who in turn was three clear of home club favourite Marilyn Henderson.