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Junior Open
Lee, Liu and Lawson start brightly to lead Junior Open on day one
15 Jul 24
3 mins
Hyosong Lee, Shauna Liu and Aidan Lawson share the limelight after the opening round of the Junior Open at Kilmarnock (Barassie).
Canadian player Liu and Korean number one Lee had to make some adjustments to claim equal billing at the top of the girls’ leaderboard. Not Scots player Lawson, who is head boy. Previously a combined championship, The R&A will award separate trophies for this first time since the Junior Open was inaugurated in 2000. Liu and Lee share the first round lead after matching four-under-par 68s. They are one shot in front of Morocco’s Sofia Essakali. Chinese player Yijia Ren and Prim Prachnakorn of Thailand are three shots off the lead on one-under in a share of fourth. Lawson’s 70, two-under-par, gives him a one-shot advantage among the boys over Edwin Sjodin of Sweden, India’s Kartik Singh and New Zealander Cooper Moore. Five players are on level par.New experience
Links golf is a completely new experience for the top two girls, both 15-year-olds, despite brilliant resumes in their own parts of the world. Lee is the highest ranked player in the field, girl or boy, at seventh on the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®). She has two wins this year, including victory in the World Ladies’ Championship Salonpas Cup on the Japan LPGA Tour. At 15 years and 176 days old, she became the youngest player in the history of Japanese women’s professional golf. She also finished in second place earlier this year in the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific in Thailand. Liu warmed up for the Junior Open by winning the American Junior Golf Association’s Memorial Junior before finishing second in the Golf Ontario Women’s Amateur and Mid-Amateur Championship. The plus 3.9 Handicap Index member of Station Creek Golf & Country Club is the world’s 592nd ranked amateur. Lawson, who has just returned from representing Scotland in the European Boys’ Team Championship in Poland, has three wins this season. Those results have given him WAGR® status of 405th.Modified approach
Liu and Lee are playing links golf for the first time. They had to modify their approach to negotiate the challenging Barassie course, which is staging the Junior Open for the third time after 2004 and 2016. “The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is focusing a lot more on where I want to land my ball,” Liu revealed. “It’s not like golf in Canada where I aim for the flag. So I’m focussing on my landing spot and not my total distance.” Ditto for Lee. “In my practice round I tried for the flags and the ball bounced over the greens,” she said. “The greens are very hard so I try to land shorter and see where the ball finishes. That makes it harder to birdie.” Not too hard. Lee made six birdies, but also dropped two shots. “The course is narrow and difficult, so I just tried to concentrate on my tee shots to get the ball in good spots.” Liu was more consistent. She only dropped one shot, at the 12th, but made up for that lapse with five birdies.
Aidan Lawson - Scotland
“I’m comfortable on this type of course but I played with guys from Mauritius and Ecuador and they said it’s completely different from what they’re used to. So links experience is a big factor. I feel like I have a chance this week because of that.”