Beware the sick golfers at Women’s Open

BY BRENDAN JAMES AT ROYAL MELBOURNE GOLF CLUB

There’s an old adage in golf, “beware the sick or wounded golfer.”

Korea’s Ilhee Lee flew into Melbourne from the United States at the weekend and woke on Monday morning with a cold, which is not uncommon for globe trotting professional golfers.

Korea's Ilhee Lee smiles after almost holing another birdie putt, this time at the 17th. PHOTO: Getty Images

The sniffles restricted her to playing only one full practice round of Royal Melbourne’s Composite course before teeing off in today’s opening round of the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

And its no wonder she was all smiles after the round as she leads the championship, having posted a five under 68 to lead Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn by a single stroke. A group of three golfers, including World No.1 Lydia Ko, Canada’s Alena Sharp and Korea’s Min Seo Kwak, are a further stroke back.

Like Lee, Ko appeared to be battling the effects of a cold as she plotted her way around the Royal Melbourne course. She sniffled at times and coughed between shots on other occasions but maintained her composure to post a solid opening round of 70.

“I’ve had a cold for the past week … it’s just a cough,” Ko said. “It’s warm out there and walking up the hills has made me cough. It doesn’t make it easy to do the whole round but I have to play.”

The Kiwi teenager said feeling unwell had not affected her score.

“When I’m in the shot I’m concentrating on the shot, it’s more when I’m walking to a ball…but I’m not complaining.”

Sitting at two under through 12 holes, Ko made her first bogey of the tournament at the par-4 13^th but bounced straight back at the par-5 14^th hole when she drained a 35-foot putt for eagle to get back to three under.

“It’s good to get off to a start, especially on a tough course like Royal Melbourne,” Ko said.

“I didn’t hole that many putts but I didn’t make many mistakes either, so that’s really important.”

Lee made even fewer mistakes, playing a near perfect round in good scoring conditions. She missed just one fairway from the tee and hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation. There was a lone birdie on the front nine – at the difficult par-4 6^th hole – and then a string of birdies at the 10th, 11^th and 13^th holes saw her grab a share of the lead with Jutanugarn. Lee took the lead outright at the 15^th when her 25-foot birdie putt dropped.

World No.1 Lydia Ko is fighting the effects of cough and cold but remains two shots off the lead. PHOTO: Getty Images

“I knew it was going to be tough and I told my caddy ‘I want to be the middle of the fairway and I don’t care where the flag is’, which I think is very important to play this golf course,” Lee said.

“I made a couple of crazy putts … and my shots from the fairway to the green were good today, that’s why I had no problem with bogies.

“Now I know how to play this golf course better than last time.”

Defending champion Karrie Webb didn't have a great day with the putter but is just five shots off the pace. PHOTO: Getty Images

The 26-year-old Lee was an 11^th hour entry into the Open because she was reluctant to travel all the way to Australia to play a tough Royal Melbourne course – a layout that beat her game up when the championship was last played here in 2012. On that occasion she shot rounds of 80-78 to miss the cut by five shots.

“I was not sure about coming here until the last minute because I know this golf course is really tough and I thought it would be tough for me,” Lee said.

““I just started working with my coach, Sandra Haynie (four-time major champion and World Golf Hall of Famer), and she gave me lots of confidence to come here.”

Lee said the famed Alistair McKenzie-designed course is not as intimidating to her as it was three years ago.

“The course is less scary to me now. Like on 13, the par-4, I thought that was very narrow and tough last time. But now I can see big fairway,” she laughed.

“Everything is a little bit better than last time. I see how to play the course better than last time. And I hit my drives and irons better. Putting is better…everything is much better.”

Dogged by the cold for the past few days and the encouraging words of her coach to cling to, Lee performed well beyond her expectations on day one.

After one round, overseas players dominated the leaderboard with Queensland’s Katherine Kirk and Rebecca Artis, from NSW, the best of the Australian players at one under and in a tie for ninth.

Defending champion Karrie Webb had an even par 73 and hopefully won’t rue what was an ordinary day with the putter. She had 33 putts for the round and headed straight to the practice putting green to work on her stroke after lunch.

Ladies Masters Champion Su Oh, troubled by a stomach bug overnight, had a day she would rather forget carding a six over 79.

Lee, whose only other LPGA victory was the 2013 Bahamas Classic, is one of five players in this week’s tournament with the same surname. There are three Lees from Korea, one from Taiwan and West Australian teen, Minjee Lee.

“They’re not all from Korea, but still that’s a lot,” the smiling leader said. “I want to be the most famous Lee. That’s my goal.”

And she will be too if she can get rid of the sniffles and hold on to win on Sunday afternoon.

For the full leaderboard, click here