Kim and Iliska lose to teenagers in quarter-finals
Friday 10 June.
Report from LGU Website.
After another day of quality play, tomorrow morning’s semi-finals in the Ladies British open amateur championship at Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland will feature four teenagers.
Seventeen -year-old Amy Boulden from Wales will play 18-year-old Alexandra Bonetti from France, and it will be an all-England affair in the second tie between defending champion Kelly Tidy, 19, from Lancashire against 16-year-old Lauren Taylor from Buckinghamshire.
Amy Boulden ended the great run by South African team player Kim Williams who had beaten local favourite Stephanie Williams by 4 and 3 in the morning’s third round.
Boulden reckoned she was four or five under par in beating the South African.
The tone for the match was set as early as the first hole which was halved in birdie 3s. Amy never looked back after holing a 12-footer for a birdie 3 to go one up at the fifth.
She landed another telling blow by holing a 25ft putt for an eagle 3 at the seventh, getting home at this 428yd hole with a drive and a four-iron. Williams, incidentally, had a cast-iron birdie 4 trumped here.
But the South African got an eagle of her own at the long ninth where she holed from 20ft for a 3 while Amy just missed with her eagle putt.
That cut Boulden’s lead to one hole at the turn but it was to prove Williams’ first and only success of the match.
The 10th was halved in birdie 4s before Amy went two up at the short 11th where Williams was bunkered.
Two up became three up at the 13th where Boulden got up and down from a bunker for winning par 4 while Williams, who had missed the green, could not match that.
The South African three-putted at the short 13th, going four down to a pitch-and-putt par 3 by Boulden.
It was all over at the next hole with Boulden 15ft from the flag with two shots. She did not have to play another. Williams missed the green and eventually conceded the hole and the match to her classy Welsh opponent.
Amy’s opponent, teeing off at 8.30am, is Alexandra Bonetti, the tall Parisienne who beat South Africa’s Illiska Verwey with a superb approach shot at the 19th after a titanic struggle in which the lead changed hands repeatedly over the closing holes.
Three times the French girl took a one-hole lead on the outward half and three times Illiska Verwey pulled her back to square.
The 10th was halved in birdie 4s and the next three holes were halved as the battle for supremacy continued, with birdies necessary to win holes. Verwey birdied the short 14th to edge ahead but Bonetti levelled it immediately with a birdie at the 15th.
Bonetti made a rare mistake on the greens in three-putting the 16th to go one down but she was back in the groove on the 17th green were she holed from 10ft for a birdie 4 to square the match. The long 18th was halved and Bonetti played a magnificent six-iron approach under pressure at the 19th. Her ball came to rest little more than a couple of feet from the hole for an almost-certain birdie 3, which was eventually conceded by Verwey when she failed to hole out in 4.
Title-holder Kelly Tidy (Royal Birkdale), finding last season’s form at just the right time, was six under par for the day in reaching the semi-finals for the second year in a row.
Lauren Taylor, at 16 years of age, is playing the golf of her young life. She earned herself a semi-final place against Kelly Tidy by beating Perrine Delacour, the French player who won the British girls title at West Lancs GC to years ago, by 4 and 3.
Lauren was four under par for the match and five or six under for another momentous day for the Woburn youngster.
Quarter-final scoresheet
Kim Williams (RSA) (49) | South Africa | 18 | 5&3 | Amy Boulden (WAL) (9) | Maesdu | »» | |
Iliska Verwey (RSA) (21) | South Africa | 19 | 1 UP | Alexandra Bonetti (FRA) (52) | France | »» | |
Charlotte Wild (ENG) (46) | The Mere | 18 | 4&3 | Kelly Tidy (ENG) (27) | Royal Birkdale | »» | |
Lauren Taylor (ENG) (42) | Woburn | 4&3 | 18 | Perrine Delacour (FRA) (47) | France | »» |
News of the semi-final and final which was won by thne 16-year-old Lauren Taylor