Paula Martín (-4) has led the Spanish team on the first day of the 2024 Women’s European Amateur Team Championship being played ‘at home’, at the North Course of theRoyal Spanish Equestrian Society Club de Campo (Madrid). The Spanish women, defending champions, ended the day in third place.
On a day with comfortable heat thanks to a light breeze and a course with excellent maintenance, Spain defended itself wisely, knowing that the key in this qualifying phase is to finish Wednesday afternoon among the top eight.
In the morning round, the good round of Carla Tejedo stood out, “a robot that always delivers”, as captain Adriana Zwanck says. The Castellón native knew how to row in the final stretch to secure a round under par (-1) fought and committed. The two birdies in the first five holes, when the wind was not yet in the picture, were a precious booty that she knew how to preserve.
Before, the earliest ones had finished their round, Andrea Revuelta (+2) and Cayetana Fernández (+1). Without being negative rounds, far from it, Andrea’s case was especially painful, who was building a more than good round -a -2 at the 13th tee- that got dirty in a troubled end: double bogey at 17 and bogey at 18. The Madrid native ended up upset, but it only lasted a while, the time it took to go out and cheer on her afternoon shift teammates.
Then Paula Martín came out, one of the three players who came from Ireland after the demanding Palmer Cup. The Madrid native, as you can see, does not know about fatigue, and neither about discouragement. Her three-putt on hole 2 to go positive only sharpened her short game even more, key in a comeback that was slowly taking shape: birdies at 4, 7, 9, 10 and 12.
From that point on, she was showing off her spectacular short game to save several complicated situations. She didn’t succeed at hole 16, but with her finish at 18 -great second shot and good putt- she regained her status as the best golfer of the day along with the Irishwoman Beth Coulter. 68 strokes for both.
The other two Spanish rounds were those of Carla Bernat (+4) and Julia López (+7). Both stumbled at the same point, that tough and demanding end that holes 17 and 18 represent, a good experience to study in view of what is to come from here to Saturday. Surely captain Adriana Zwanck and coach Sergio de Céspedes will have taken good note of the difficulties that this end entails.
Denmark leads the classification
This first day has left several clues as to what the future of the tournament may be. The first, the good moment in which always tough teams like England (+1) or Italy (+2) arrive. The lead, however, is for the Danes (-2), who signed a fantastic group exercise.
The competition format includes two stroke play days (game by strokes) that allow establishing a classification before playing the various title eliminatory rounds. It is an indispensable condition to occupy one of the first eight places in the preliminary phase to opt for the title in play.
