Fresh off her first professional title in Manchester two weeks ago, Tereza Zapletal Kozeluhova continued her red-hot form by shooting a five-under 67 to co-lead the Pitch 15 Open in Hertfordshire, England.
After Thursday’s opening round at Hanbury Manor Marriott Hotel & Country Club on the LET Access Series (LETAS), the Czech golfer shares the lead with England’s Ellen Hume, Wales’ Luca Thompson and Switzerland’s Natalie Armbruester.
“It was an amazing day, as you can tell,” Kozeluhova said. “It’s nice to say that I already won one time, it’s a really nice feeling. But I’m still trying to be the same as I was before Manchester.
“I’m trying to keep (the win) low profile, stay as patient and calm as I can. I don’t feel any pressure, I’m just trying to play my golf. Now, it’s going well but it’s still first round so a lot of golf ahead.”
Starting from the 10th tee, Kozeluhova bogeyed her opening hole before bouncing back with birdies on holes 12 and 14. Another dropped shot on hole 16 followed, which she swiftly restored with a birdie on the par-5 17th.
The 26-year-old heated up on her second nine, rolling in four birdies on holes one, two, four and six to surge up the leaderboard.
“It wasn’t my strongest start,” she said. “But then I got into it and made a lot of birdies, especially on the second nine. So that really helped me. I made one pretty long one on hole 2, it was like 11 metres.
“I had a good driver, my putting was pretty amazing. I finished with two missed birdies, so it was a little bit bittersweet but overall I’m still happy with my round.”
Like Kozeluhova, Hume, who also shot a five-under 67, began her round with a bogey before finding her groove on the second nine.
The Englishwoman, 26, closed with five birdies and four pars in her final nine holes to post the score of the day.
“I feel like the front (second) nine is a bit more scoreable with a couple reachable par-5s and potentially drivable first hole,” Hume said. “I kind of played those as near perfect as I possibly could.
“The first hole, I drove the green, two-putted. Second (par 5), went for it in two, two-putted. The last hole I only had about an eight iron into the par 5 so hit it just past the green and managed to get up and down. Very tidy golf on the front nine.
“The ball was going a long way in places, so yeah, that definitely helped. I hit a lot of fairways, had some good targets. So that was definitely one of my strengths today.”
Thompson, who teed off in the afternoon, started even-par on the front nine but rolled in an eagle and three birdies on the back nine to also shoot five-under 67.
“Not the best of starts, but very nice back nine,” the Welshwoman said. “Just felt like my game didn’t quite click on the front but really happy to end it the way it did.
“I really made sure that I stayed in the present moment and just had really good fun with our group as well.”
Thompson, who has full status on the LET, decided to play this event as it was only a one-hour drive from home. She was among 18 players who made the cut for Final Qualifying for the AIG Women’s Open, which will be held next Monday.
She added: “I had to take the week off before for an injury, so it’s kind of good to regroup because I’ve been on the road so much this year that I haven’t had time to process everything I’ve done in the last six months because it’s been the best six months of my life.
“It was really nice to have that week to kind of go through the season, see what was good, what was bad, what I can improve and yeah, it’s led me to a good round today.”
Also in the afternoon session was Switzerland’s Armbruester, who bounced back from a one-over front nine with a blistering six-under 30 back nine to post a round of five-under-par.
Armbruester, who is second in the LETAS Order of Merit, finished birdie-eagle-birdie on holes 16 to 18 to put herself in contention once more.
“Honestly, I think the front nine I didn’t play badly,” she said. “I was just making a couple of poor club choices with my approach shots, but I felt like I learned from that the front nine, so I just started making better choices with my approach play.
“So I was giving myself more opportunities on the back, and that really made the difference. I hit it to a foot on 16, so it was an easy tap in, and then on 17 I hit a really good drive, so only had a nine iron in, and rolled in a good putt, and on 18, just three solid shots.”
Armbruester already has three second-place finishes this season and finds herself with another opportunity to get her first professional victory.
“The goal would obviously naturally be to win if that would work out,” she added. “But really, going into this tournament, I was trying to just have a good mindset again. I missed the cut in Manchester just because I felt like I wasn’t in a good mindset.
“I was distracted a little bit by sort of the noise in my own head. So going into this week, I really just wanted to go back to what helped me the beginning of the season, focusing on being present and commitment, just focusing on those personal goals.”
Having teed off in the morning session, both Kozeluhova and Hume will enjoy an afternoon tee time on Friday.
Hume, who is hosting the Swedish trio of Louise Rydqvist, Emelie Borggren and Sophie Bringner at her home this week, will spend her down time taking her Swedish friends for an Indian dinner.
For Kozeluhova, she plans to explore London. “I should say I’m gonna go practice, but we’ll probably go to London to see the city,” she said. “We have a tee time tomorrow later in the afternoon so we got plenty of time.”
One shot behind Kozeluhova, Hume and Thompson come the duo of England’s Chantal El Chaib and France’s Lauren Holmey who both shot four-under 68.
El Chaib carded a bogey-free round with birdies on holes 10, 12, 13 and 15, while Holmey mixed five birdies with one bogey.
A further stroke back at three-under overall are the quarter of Austria’s Isabella Holpfer, England’s Bel Wardle, France’s Anais Meyssonnier and French amateur Alice Kong.
Round 2 resumes tomorrow at 7.45am (local time) and there will be a cut to the top 45 professionals and ties.
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