SA players retain third position in Mexico

Day two in Mexico was disappointing for the SA Players but they retain their third position in the International Pairs Tournament. Bertine Strauss is seventh in the individual competition on 158 (78, 80) while Tiffany Avern-Taplin is tied 10th on 162 (79, 83). The 72 hole Mexican Women’s Amateur Championship is being played at the Club de Golf Vallescondido in Mexico City this week with the final round being played on Saturday 8 January.

Mexican Margarita Ramos continues to lead the field on 145 (72, 73) and Mexico leads the team event on 302 while SA are in third position 18 strokes back on 320.

These emails were received from the players, the first before the event started and the next after day one:

Hi Erica hope you are doing well!

So far we have had a wonderful time in Mexico.

On our first day we went on a open bus tour of Mexico city, it is so much bigger then we ever could have imagined, really beautiful lots of trees, statues and amazing buildings, there also seems to be an almost European vibe within the city lots of markets and siestas.

We have a wonderful host family, however there is a slight language problem to say the least but between their broken English and our new found Spanish vocabulary we seem to get the message across, when all else fails say si and laugh!

We played a practice round today, wow what a tough golf course. We are both glad we decided to play today so tomorrow will be our second practice round.

To add to the level of difficulty lets throw yards into the equation. We also found that Mexico city is 1000 meters higher then Jo’burg, so Bertine is hitting one club less and I am hitting two clubs less. The greens are huge and very fast and slopy, many hidden breaks. Despite the obvious difficulties we are both feeling rather excited about the challenge that lies ahead.

Tomorrow we are having the opening ceremony and press conference. Our caddies are very nice and seem to speak better English then most of the other Mexicans we have come into contact with.

We went to the mall today and other then getting Starbucks it seemed almost impossible to even find out the price of things. We painted our nails tonight purple and blue to match our shirts, but discovered that being a Barbie doll is a rather tough affair.

Tiff and Tina

Hi Erica

The opening ceremony yesterday was really nice, except for the part where they only spoke Spanish and we couldn’t understand a word they said.

Round one was a bit up and down today. I shot 78 and Tiffany shot 79. Both of us played well except for a few holes. I had a triple on the 12th hole and Tiff had two doubles on 14 and 16. The course is playing quite tough. I am lying tied fifth and Tiff is lying seventh. The leading score is level par 72. In the team event we are lying third on 157, three shots behind the leaders team Mexico. You can have a look at the scores on the following website www.amfg.org.mx under resultados.

Attached is a photo of us at the opening ceremony. Have a good day!

Bertine and Tiffany

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