RACHEL BELL BURNS UP TROON

PORTLAND WITH 65 IN HELEN

HOLM FIRST ROUND

Yorkshire’s Rachel Bell (pictured right) led the sub-par surge in the first round of the Helen Holm Scottish women’s open amateur stroke-play championship with a magnificent round of 10-under-par 65 over the Troon Portland course.
It is almost certainly a record although the organising Scottish Ladies Golfing Association officials could not confirm this in the past. England’s Joanne Hockley and Fiona Brown had 67s over the same course on their way to victories in 1996 and 2001 respectively.
Miss Bell, a Ganton Golf Club member who spent four years on the American college golf circuit as a student at Southern California University, had one eagle and nine birdies in her halves of 30 and 35.
Astonishing for such a low round, Rachel had one bogey – at the 17th.
Her figures were:
OUT: 5 4 4 2 3 3 3 2 4 – 30.
IN: 3 5 4 4 3 4 3 5 4 – 35.
The eagle was a 3 at the sixth and the birdies came at the second, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 12th, 15th and 18th.
She covered the six holes from the fourth to the ninth inclusive in seven under par with a run of five birdies and an eagle.
The par-5s at Troon Portland are two-shotters to the quality of player in this field, the strongest ever assembled for the championship. Even so, the scoring on the first of a three-day schedule for the first time, was very good. So much so that the CSS was 74 – one below par, which is unusual.
Rachel Bell has gone four strokes clear of Alexandrea Vilatte from France and Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth. There are two rounds to go, another over Troon Portland on Saturday with the leading 66 players and ties at the end of 36 holes going forward to the testing championship links of Royal Troon on Sunday.
Leading the Scottish challenge on five-under-par 70 were Jenna Wilson (Strathaven) and Heather MacRae (Dunblane New). They are in joint fourth position with a score that in most years would have gone close to leading the first-round field.