When: 25 August 2022
What: 29th Women’s World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy
Where: Le Golf National (Albatross) and Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche (Red), Paris, France
Rapid Recap:
Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad, who is No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking ®, fired eight birdies in her first 12 holes to post a 6-under 65 at Le Golf National to pace her team into the lead through Round 2 of the 29th Women’s Amateur Team Championship.
The Swedes also used a 3-under 68 from Meja Ortengren for a day’s total of 8 under to lead Germany and first-day leader USA by two strokes at 9-under 277.
Lindblad, who shot a record 65 as the lowest score by an amateur in the first round at the 2022 U.S. Women’ Open, bobbled slightly in the stretch with a bogey on the 15th and a double bogey on the 18th but her 65 tied for the third-best second round in Espirito Santo history and is the best round of the championship.
“A round like this means a lot to the team, even if it could've been lower,” said Lindblad, the 2021 European Amateur champion who plays golf at Louisiana State University. “We’ve been talking about playing aggressively, which we tried to do today. A low round like this, especially today, puts us on top of the leaderboard and from there, we just have to keep going.”
On Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, the USA, who are defending champions from 2018, were led by Rachel Kuehn’s 2-under 70 and an even par 72 from world No. 1 Rose Zhang, who were teammates in the USA’s last two Curtis Cup Match victories.
“Sweden has a great team,” said Kuehn, who played for the Dominican Republic with her mother in 2018. “There are a lot of teams that can go out and play well. We can’t be caught on our heels, but we haven’t shot ourselves out of it. We are looking to make a move tomorrow and finish it off on Saturday but it’s going to take some good golf.”
Germany gained a stroke on the USA on the strength of another solid and steady day from Celina Rosa Sattelkau shooting a 2-under 70 and Alexandra Fosterling contributing a 71.
“We went out from the start and stayed patient and hit all the good shots we talked about,” said German Captain Pia Gassner, who played in the WWATC in 2008 and 2010.
Japan moved up nine places on the leaderboard to fourth at 281 on the strength of a 4-under- 67 from 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur Champion Saki Baba. Her teammate Mizuki Hashimoto shot a 1-under 71.
Chinese Taipei was fifth; Spain and Switzerland tied for sixth, with the Republic of Korea moving nine places up to eighth.
Quotable:
Ingrid Lindblad, Sweden: “I started off on 1 with hitting it to 2 feet. Then, I just kept going and it was mostly my putting but, of course, good approaches too. I tried not to think too much about scores, I knew what was coming in the next few holes, it’s not an easy finish at Golf National. I just tried to keep going and keep the mistakes away.”
Celina Rosa Sattelkau, Germany: “I was happy about the way I played. You are going to have drives left or right and you are going to miss some putts. I stayed patient and focused on what you can do and give yourself the best chance for birdie or par. I was super happy about my improvement today.
Saki Baba, Japan (on shooting 5-under 67): “My iron shots were good. My driver was left and right, but my recovery shots were perfect. I am confident in my putting.”
Captain Pam Murray, USA (on the play of Rachel Kuehn): “She started making some putts. She was hitting the ball stiff all day and just couldn’t quite get the putts to fall. The putt on the last hole was amazing.
Captain Pia Gessner, Germany: “We didn’t have a lot of expectations. We didn’t know where we would be at the end of these two days but now that we are in the top three spots that is going to be amazing for the girls to get this experience. We have to stay in our game and try not to get starstruck.”
Notable:
- Sweden’s Lindblad of Sweden was the Southeastern Conference Player in the Year in 2020 and 2022 and a member of three gold-medal-winning teams at the European Team Championships.
- With her score of 8 under through 14 holes, Lindblad was targeting the lowest individual score in WWATC history. That score of 63 is shared by Julieta Granada of Uruguay (third round in 2004) and Ji-Hee Jim of the Republic of Korea (second round in 2010).
- Lindblad played her first round of the U.S. Women’s Open with her idol Annika Sorenstam, who is defending her U.S. Senior Women’s Open title today.
- Rachel Kuehn of the USA is the third member of her family to play for two different countries in the World Amateur Team Championships. She is making her second appearance at the WWATC and, in 2018, played with her mother, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, for the Dominican Republic. Brenda represented the USA in 1996 and 1998 and the Dominican Republic in 1986 and 2018. Rachel’s grandfather, Jack Corrie, played for Venezuela (in 1958, 1960) and the Dominican Republic (1972 and 1974) giving the Corrie and Kuehn families a worldwide presence in golf.
What’s Next:
Round 3 begins Friday at 8 a.m. with a two-tee start on both courses. The teams with leading scores will play at Le Golf National and the other half of the draw will play at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche