Championships

Thailand’s Galitsky seals quarter-final place at Girls’ Amateur

The R&A

12 Aug 22

3 mins

Thailand’s Eila Galitsky impressed to reach the quarter-finals of the R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship at Carnoustie.

For the first time, the match play stages of the Girls’ and Boys’ Amateur are being played simultaneously at one venue over the renowned Angus links.

On a cooler and windier day at last year’s AIG Women’s Open venue, conditions were trickier but it proved no hindrance to Galitsky. Experiencing links golf for the first time this week, the 15-year-old was victorious against Maggie Whitehead from England to progress to the last-eight of the Girls’ Amateur tomorrow morning. Galitsky, the sole Thailand player in the field, said, “I feel great. I played a really great round and she played a great round too but I just hit it close. That’s how I won today, just by making birdies.

“This is my first time on links and my first time in Europe. It’s very different from what I’m used to so I’m just glad that I played well. Good shots become bad shots, bad shots become good shots. You need a lot of patience, so I’m just building up my stamina for the links.”

English hopes

Meantime, four English players have booked their place in the quarter-finals.

Having yesterday knocked out the leading stroke play qualifier Paula Martin Sampedro, Amelia Wan continued her form with a 4&2 win over another Spaniard, Julia Sanchez Morales.

Lottie Woad, winner of the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters this year, battled to a 2&1 win against Paula Balanzategui Garcia, also from Spain. Rachel Gourley and Ellise Rymer are the other two English players in the last-eight and they face each other in the morning. Gourley saw off Avani Prashanth from India 4&2 while Rymer defeated Spain’s Paula Francisco 3&2. Rymer said, “Early on, because I was two down after seven holes, I was feeling a little nervous but then I thought ‘come on, fight back, you’ve got this’ and it paid off. I won three holes in a row to get the win so I was very pleased with what I did.

“Paula had all her Spanish supporters and I was on my own with one of mine so you’ve definitely got to back yourself, know that you can actually win the match and do a good job. It’s been really good being with the other English girls this week. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Lottie Woad, winner of the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters this year, is one of four English players to make the quarter-final stages.

Spaniard in hunt

There was Spanish success for Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, the world-ranked number 48, as she prevailed 5&4 against England’s Cherry Marley. Wales’ in-form Emily James and Nathalie Borg from Sweden are also looking forward to quarter-final clashes. “I was confident today,” said Garcia-Poggio. “My driver broke this morning so I asked one of the Spanish girls to give me her driver and I played with that. I am really proud of myself because I played really well. I am very happy and tomorrow I hope I play as I did today.

“Today I made like four or five birdies but in the previous rounds I didn’t make many birdies so I think that was the key for today. When she didn’t play a good hole I was there to make a par and win the hole. I was very comfortable playing and I’m very happy. I’m enjoying it a lot here and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Live stream

Previous winners of the Girls’ Amateur include major champions Georgia Hall and Anna Nordqvist and, more recently, Pia Babnik, already a two-time winner on the Ladies’ European Tour.

For the first time, the 36-hole finals of both championships on Sunday will be live streamed at Carnoustie and can be watched on The R&A’s website at www.randa.org as well as on The R&A YouTube channel.

The Girls' and Boys' Amateur championships are supported by EventScotland. Follow the live blog, scoring and match play draws at www.randa.org.