Baba Fires 67 to Lift Japan Into Contention

Paris, France: With US Women’s Amateur Champion Saki Baba finding her range, Japan surged into contention at the half-way stage of the 29th Women’s Amateur Team Championship.

Baba bounced back from a disappointing opening-day 74 at Le Golf National with a four-under-par 67 at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche.

With Mizuki Hashimoto, the reigning individual champion at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific and Queen Sirikit Cup, contributing a 71 the Japanese team soared nine places on the leaderboard.

Heading into Friday’s third round, Japan is fourth on 281 – four strokes behind pace-setting Sweden and two in arrears to Germany and the United States, who are joint second.

Reflecting on her round, Baba said: “My iron shots were good. My driver was left and right, but my recovery shots were perfect. I am confident in my putting.”

Three other Asia-Pacific nations are also well-placed in the top-10.

Chinese Taipei, for whom Liao Hsin-chun posted a second successive 69, are alone in fifth place on 282, while Korea rose nine places to eighth on 284 on the back of a 68 from Kim Min-byeol.

Two shots further back in a share of ninth place are Australia with Kirsten Rudgeley (72) and Kelsey Bennett (74) contributing.

Hong Kong is tied for 20th on 295 followed by Thailand (tied 24th, 296), New Zealand and the Philippines (tied 26th, 297), India (34th, 301), Singapore (tied 41st, 307) and Guam (tied 55th, 338).

In the individual standings, Liao is second, one shot behind Sweden’s Meja Ortengren. On 140 in joint third is Kim, while Baba is equal seventh on 141.

Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad, number two in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), fired eight birdies in her first 12 holes en route to a 66 at Le Golf National to pace her team into the lead. The Swedes also used a three-under 68 from Ortengren for a day’s total of eight-under.

“A round like this means a lot to the team, even if it could’ve been lower,” said Lindblad, the 2021 European Amateur champion who plays golf at Louisiana State University. “We’ve been talking about playing aggressively, which we tried to do today. A low round like this, especially today, puts us on top of the leaderboard. From there, we just have to keep going.”

At Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, the US, who are defending champions from 2018, were led by Rachel Kuehn’s two-under 70 and an even-par 72 from WAGR number one Rose Zhang, team-mates in the US’s last two Curtis Cup Match victories.