ST. ANDREWS (SCOTLAND): The sun kept playing hide and seek for the first half, but strong winds kept torturing the women golfers through the opening day of the 2024 AIG Women's Open.
In conditions that have been one of the most challenging in recent years at either of the two Opens, for men and women, Diksha Dagar and Aditi Ashok struggled but hung in there hoping for a better second day.
Aditi was made to wait till the very last hole, the ninth for her only birdie of the day as she finished 4-over 76. The birdie could well prove to be a crucial one as the cut is likely at 3-over or 4-over as 65 and ties will make the cut for the weekend.
Diksha, T-21 last year at Walton Heath, was also 4-over through 17 holes. The Indians were Tied-79th but the placing could improve as the rest of the field completes the round. Players missed putts between six and nine inches, the ball wobbled on the tees and the range flags looked like ripping from their seams and flying off with the seagulls, whose path seemed wayward and against their will. Many players claimed this was the windiest conditions they had ever played in.
One of Asia's many prodigious stars, China's Yin Ruoning, who turns 22 in five weeks, began from the tenth in the morning when the sun did make an occasional appearance and wind seemed less but only in comparison. Ruoning went up to 6-under with seven birdies against one bogey through 14 holes. Then she showed her human side as she dropped shots on the sixth and the eighth for a 4-under 68, which held out as the clubhouse lead.
Ruoning (68) was one ahead of 31-year-old Korean Jenny Shin (69), who is among those who played the Women's Open at the Old Course, when it was last held here in 2013 and finished T-17.
Shin's 69 included an eagle on Par-5 14th. However, despite the gusting winds in the afternoon, Korea's Lee Mi Hyang joined Jenny Shin at 3-under 69. Last year's runner-up Charley Hull (3-under through 13) and few others at 2-under. World No. 1 Nelly Korda was 1-under through 13 holes.
