Morgan Pressel and Camilla Lennarth outshine Inbee Park at British Open

American Morgan Pressel and Swedish outsider Camilla Lennarth outshone history-chaser Inbee Park in the first round of the Ricoh British Women’s Open at St Andrews yesterday.

All the pre-tournament focus had been on Park, seeking to become as the first player — male of female – to win four straight professional major championships in the same year, and she looked like putting on a show early on.

The South Korean raced to six under after 10 holes but dropped three shots coming home.

A double-bogey six at the 381-yard 16 and another dropped shot at the next looked like ruining what had been a promising round but she birdied the last to finish with a three-under 69.

“I played very good on the front nine and then I had a little bit shaky on the back nine,” Park said.

“But I still feel really good about the game. I was six-under through 10 holes and that means I could do the same thing tomorrow.

“There were a couple of bad drives and a couple of bad putts on the back nine, but it’s the first round. A little bit disappointing, but I’m glad that I’ve done that in the first round instead of the final round.”

Surprise package
Her stutter allowed her rivals to take advantage and Pressel topped the leaderboard on six under along with surprise package Lennarth, the world number 340, who had three birdies in each half of her round with no dropped shots.

The 25-year-old Pressel from Florida posted seven birdies and one dropped shot on the Old Course to take a one-shot lead into the second round ahead of another South Korean Ji Eun-hee, the 2009 US Women’s Open champion. Two other Koreans – Choi Na-yeon and Jon Mi-jeon – and four other Americans – world number two Stacey Lewis, Nicole Castrale, Ryann O’Toole and Sydnee Michaels – also joined her on that score.