FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play / 6 rounds of matchplay
Fifteen-year-old Grace Crawford once again proved her class as she overcame the highly-experienced Swede Kajsa Arwefjall to reach the last 32 of the British Women’s Amateur today.
The Bahamas-based junior, who won the Scottish Women’s Open in April, qualified for the knock-out stages in a highly impressive 12th and carried on in similar vein against the 20-year-old World No 64, who last year won a professional event in her native Sweden.
Crawford won a high-class tussle 3&1 to set up a last 32 meeting with Welsh hope Ffion Tynan and the West Links Junior player was delighted to have ticked off her first target.
“It was a really tough battle,” said the youngster, who has just been named in the Scottish team to play in the European Team Championship next month. “We were definitely back-and-forth. You know, one went eagle, birdie, par and so on. There was some good golf out there but job done.
“Getting through to the top 64 was my first goal and anything past that is just a bonus.”
Tynan had a great day on the greens in dispatching Aussie Abbie Teasdale 4&2 and the Welsh Girls champion, who was a model of consistency last year, is the last player from the principality left the competition.
“A lot of putts needed to drop, and I had to stay patient for the first, maybe, six, seven holes before I could get something to drop,” said the Minchinhampton player. “But once they started dropping…it gives you a boost of confidence, which is nice.”
The teenager identified an unlikely par on nine as a key moment in their encounter.
“I made a good par save from the back edge of the green. So from there, I just kind of built a little bit of momentum. The pressure was never off because she was a very good player and holed a lot of key putts back there, too.”
Home favourite Amelia Williamson made it through the first round to set up a clash with Italian Carolina Melgrati while her Curtis Cup team-mate Hannah Darling left it late to see off Roehampton’s Isabelle Simpson and she now meets Germany’s Viktoria Hund for a place in the last 16.
Other British victors today were Simpson’s clubmate Annabell Fuller, Northumberland’s Jess Baker and Rebecca Earl, who maintained her momentum of yesterday by seeing off Essex’s Harriet Lynch on the 18th. The Bishops Stortford player birdied six of the last eight holes to make the cut by one shot.
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