World amateur number one Lottie Woad fired a warning shot across the bow of first-round rival Aloysa Margiela Atienza when she followed a 69 with a brilliant six-under 66 to top the qualifiers in the Women’s Amateur Championship at Portmarnock.
The reigning Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion (20) bounced back from an opening bogey with birdies at the second, fourth, seventh, ninth, 10th, 13th and 15th to top the leaderboard by five strokes on nine-under from Sweden’s Maja Ortengren, who shot 69 to be the only other player in the red.
Seven of the 13-strong Irish contingent made the 64 qualifiers for the matchplay as diminutive Singaporean Atienzan saw a 45-foot bomb from short of the ninth green at the fourth extra hole clatter the pin and drop.
She eliminated England’s Patience Rhodes in near darkness to end a six-way playoff for the 64th spot on 13-over.
American Anna Morgan was eliminated at the first extra hole, the 10th, as Atienza, Rhodes, Denmark’s Johanna Axelson, Americans Rebekka Skoler and Sydney Roberts made pars to advance.
Axelson and Skoler bowed out with bogeys at the ninth before Roberts was eliminated on their return to the tenth, where Rhodes from the left and Atienza from the right both made fantastic up and downs for par.