Ashleigh takes on Glendower
“I played the back nine well, but at the 11th, I hit a good chip to four feet and the putt lipped out. Other than that blip on my card, it was a pretty solid nine,” she said.
Former Bedfordview resident and Holy Rosary School pupil, Ashleigh Simon, carded an opening two-under-par 70 on the first day of the second Chase to the Investec Cup for Ladies held at the Glendower Golf Club on Thursday.
Ashleigh’s score ensures she was tied for the lead with Tandi von Ruben at the close of play.
Ashleigh could have held a two-shot lead and lamented a rookie mistake early in the round.
“My playing partners, Lee-Anne Pace, Magda Kruger and I, incurred a two-shot penalty each for playing off the wrong teeing ground at the second hole,” said Ashleigh.
“We automatically went to the same tee box we had played from in the practice round. Luckily, a spectator drove past and pointed it out, before we completed the hole. It is a tough break and a little embarrassing, but you just need to pick yourself up and get going again,” she said.
The pace-setter lead by one stroke from Ladies European Tour (LET) campaigner, Stacy Bregman and the unheralded Francesca Cuturi.
Italy’s Sophie Sandolo slotted into the sixth with a one over 73 and finished one shot clear of LET rookies Nobuhle Dlamini and Nicole Garcia, Australia’s Maggie Yuan and Mae Cornforth from Potchefstroom, who leads the amateur field.
Ashleigh came into the event fresh with good form after a second place finish at the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am on Sunday last week, while Tandi is chasing her second Sunshine Ladies Tour title after claiming the Sun International Challenge at Lost City in a play-off a fortnight ago.
Ashleigh, a two-time European Ladies Tour champion, notched seven birdies and five bogeys, with four of her drops coming on the front nine. She turned in even-par.
“It definitely was not pretty out there, especially over the front nine,” said Ashleigh.
“The course is playing very long due to all the rain and with the rough up and the slick greens, you really need to be accurate. Any time you deviate, you pay the piper,” she said.
Ashleigh reeled in birdies at the 11th, bogeyed the 16th, and closed with two confidence-building birdies.
“I played the back nine well, but at the 11th, I hit a good chip to four feet and the putt lipped out. Other than that blip on my card, it was a pretty solid nine,” she said.
Tandi enjoyed an early brace of birdies at the second and third, lost the advantage with bogeys at the fifth and seventh but birdied the eighth to reach the turn in red figures alongside Nobuhle.
She sandwiched a bogey between birdies at the 11th and 13th, before parring her way to a 70.
“I had a nice solid start and I hit my tee shots and irons really well,” said Tandi.
“I missed the fairway at seven and had to scramble for a bogey. I missed the fairway right at the 12th, you just cannot hit it left at that hole and overcommitted on the tee shot, trying to make the line. I made it to the green, but I missed a slippery left-to-right putt for bogey. But, otherwise, a pretty solid round,” she said.
