MAGUIRE FOUR OFF LPGA Q SCHOOL STAGE 2 LEAD

By Randall Mell
Venezuela’s Alazne Urizar Zapata took the first-round lead Thursday in the LPGA Q-School’s stage two event at Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice, Florida.
With a 6-under-par 66 on the Bobcat Course, Zapata is one shot ahead of Sweden’s Jenny Haglund, Hungary’s Csicsi Rozsa and Spain’s Luna Sobron.
South Korean amateur Eun Jeong Seong opened with a 68, moving into a tie for fifth. Seong made history last year becoming the first player to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur in the same season.
Ireland’s Leona Maguire, the world’s No. 1 amateur and the two-time Annika Award winner at Duke University as the best player in college women’s golf, opened with a 70, good for a tie for 11th.
England’s Georgia Hall opened with a 71. Hall tied for third at the Ricoh Women’s British Open in August and tied for 10th at the Evian Championship a month later. She made her first European Solheim Cup team this summer.
Alongside Hall on the T23 mark are compatriots Annabel Dimmock and Charlotte Thomas.
Meghan Maclaren had a 72 to be T40 overnight.
Scots Vikki Laing, Gemma Dryburgh and Michele Thomson are T83 with 74s.
Carly Booth had a 75 to be T102.
A fifth Scot, Kylie Walker, was T120 with Amy Boulden from Wales on the 76 mark.
There is a field of 190 players.
The low 80 scores and ties from this week’s field of 192 players will advance to the final stage of Q-School in December.