Spain was hoping to add another representative this Monday to the list of players who will compete from Thursday in the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath (England), but finally there will be five after Carolina López Chacarra (+2) did not manage to get one of the 12 places that were distributed in the final preliminary held at Hankley Common. On July 17, at The Buckinghamshire, a pre-qualifier was held where Marta Pérez and Harang Lee did not advance. The Armada will be made up in the British by the following quintet: Carlota Ciganda, Ana Peláez, Nuria Iturrioz, Carmen Alonso and Julia López.
Chacarra was the only Spaniard among the 105 hopefuls to qualify for the British three days before the last Major of the year, although she finished in 45th place with two over par. The Madrid-born player, who was proclaimed this spring champion of the NCAA with Wake Forest, made a bogey on the 2nd, birdied on the 6th but squandered many of her chances with a double bogey on the 8th that put her at +2 with 10 flags left. She recovered a stroke on the 9th, although two mistakes on the 12th and 16th cut short her chances of qualification; however, she closed her round of 18 holes with a birdie.
The Welsh Chloe Williams (-5), the French Emma Grechi (-4), the American Gina Kim (-4), the Irish amateur Anna Foster (-3), the Scottish Kylie Henry (-3), the Ecuadorian Daniela Darquea (-3) and the golfer from Taipei Wei-ling Hsu (-3) secured their ticket to Walton Heath after the 18 regulation holes, while the 13 tied with -2 faced a playoff to decide the other five places.
In the exciting finale, literally in the dark for some of them, the South Korean Mi Hyang Lee, the Swedish Ingrid Lindblad (world number one amateur), the Australian Kelsey Bennett and the English Hayley Davis secured a spot in the AIG Women’s Open. The Belgian amateur Savannah de Bock and the Canadian Maddie Szeryk will decide the last place first thing tomorrow as the playoff was suspended due to lack of light. The Welsh Lydia Hall, the American Lucy Li, the Italian Virginia Elena Carta, the English Eleanor Givens, Lottie Woad and Emma Allen and the Thai Wichanee Meechai fell in the playoff.
Annabel Dimmock (-1), Anne van Dam (-1), Linnea Johansson (+1), Jana Melichova (+2), Moa Folke (+2), Nicole Garcia (+2) or Casandra Alexander (+6) were some of the golfers who unsuccessfully tried to qualify for the AIG Women’s Open.
