BRIGGS AND McKECHIN INSIDE TOP ELEVEN AT MONTADO

EILIDH AND ALYSON LET IT SLIP OVER

LAST FEW HOLES IN PORTUGAL

Scots Eilidh Briggs and Alyson McKechin both let sub-par scores slip out of their grasp over the closing holes in the first round of the Portuguese women's open amateur championship at Montado Golf Resort.

Stirling student Eilidh Briggs (Kilmacolm), pictured, finished the day tied seventh on one-over-par 73 but she was two under par with only four holes to play after birdies at the third, fifth and 10th and only one off-setting bogey, at the sixth.
But she dropped shots at the 15th, 16th and 18th.
Scottish champion McKechin (Elderslie), pictured left, was two under par on the 14th tee after birdies at the sixth, 12th and 13th had wiped out a bogey at the long second.
But McKechin bogeyed the 14th, ran up a double bogey 7 at the long 15th and dropped another shot at the 17th for a disappointing 74 in the circumstances. She is joint 11th.
Lauren Whyte (St Regulus), the third Scot in the field, is sharing 19th place on 76. She birdied the sixth and 10th but bogeyed three holes on both halves.
Spain's Silvia Banon Ibariez leads with a 69, one ahead of England's Inc Mehmet and China's Xiaolin Tian.
Curtis Cup team contender Gabriella Cowley is in fourth place on 71.
Wentworth's Annabel Dimmock, winner of the Jones-Doherty Cup after being runner-up in the previous Orange Blossom Tour event, "The Sally,"
is T41 after a 78.

LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES
Par 72. Length: 5,474 metres
69 Silvia Banon Ibariez (Spa)
70 Inc Mehmet (Eng), Xiaolin Tian (Chi)
71 Gabriella Cowley (Eng)
72 Viriginia Elena Carta (Ita), Bethan Popel (Eng)
73 Eildih Briggs (Sco), Lucy Goddard (Eng), Olivia Mehaffey (Ire), Emma O'Driscoll (Ire)

SELECTED SCORES
74 Alyson McKechin (Sco) (T11)
76 Lauren Whyte (Sco), Chloe Rogers (Eng), Sarah-Jane Boyd (Eng), Becky Harries (Wal) (T19)
77 Paula Grant (Ire), Rochelle Morris (Eng) (T32)
78 Mary Doyle (Ire), Emma Allen (Eng), Sophie Madden (Eng), Charlotte Austwick (Eng), Annabel Dimmock (Eng), Chloe Williams (Wal), Alex Peters (Eng) (T41)
80 Emily Slater (Eng) (T59)
82 Chloe Frankish (Eng) (T70)
85 Jean O'Driscoll (Ire) (T83)
Field of 90 player.s






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