Lee Quick to Adapt to Links Challenge at R&A Junior Open

Kilmarnock, Scotland: While the world’s best male golfers are chasing the Claret Jug at Royal Troon this week, young players from across the globe are targeting success on another renowned Ayrshire links course nearby.

The R&A Junior Open is being played at Kilmarnock (Barassie), only a few miles down the coast from Royal Troon where The 152nd Open will be contested.

The R&A will crown separate boys and girls Junior Open champions for the first time since the Championship’s inauguration in 2000. Previously the biennial championship has been a combined event.

Leading the way for the Asia-Pacific in Monday’s first round in the Girls’ Championship was Korean prodigy Lee Hyo-song who fired a four-under 68 to share the first-round lead with Canadian Shauna Liu.

In May, Lee upstaged a star-studded field to win the World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup, one of the four Major championships on the Japan LPGA Tour. With her win, Lee became the youngest winner on the JLPGA Tour at 15 years and 176 days.

Lee’s star has been rising rapidly since she finished tied third in the 2022 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) at Thailand’s Siam Country Club when aged 13. At the same venue, she placed runner-up at this year’s showpiece amateur championship in February.

Her outstanding form continued in March when she was third individually in helping Korea to victory in the Queen Sirikit Cup in New Zealand and she began this week in seventh place in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Playing links golf for the first time, Lee has been quick to adapt to conditions.

Lee, who snared six birdies against two bogeys, said: “The course is narrow and difficult, so I just tried to concentrate on my tee shots to get the ball in good spots.

“In my practice round I tried for the flags and the ball bounced over the greens. The greens are very hard so I try to land shorter and see where the ball finishes. That makes it harder to birdie.”

Also off to a flyer in Kilmarnock was Ren Yijia who wrote her name into the China LPGA history books in May when the 14-year-old amateur defeated veteran Pan Yanhong on the second hole of a play-off to become the Tour’s youngest winner.

Ren returned a 71 in Scotland and is tied for fourth with Thai Prim Prachnakorn.

Singapore’s Chen Xingtong is a further shot back in sixth followed by Japan’s Anna Iwanaga (73) and Indian Zara Anand and Reese Allyson Ng of the Philippines (both 75).

In the Boys’ category, Indian Kartik Singh and New Zealand’s Cooper Moore both returned one-under-par 71s to share second place with Swede Edwin Sjobin. Scotland’s Aidan Lawson is the early pace-setter with a 70.

Also off to a promising start in the 54-hole event are Shinichi Suzuki of the Philippines (joint fifth, 72), Korean An Seong-hyeon (10th, 73) and Singaporean Troy Storm and Chinese Taipei’s Kuo Shi-chi (joint 11th, 74).

Thai Teerawut Boonseeor is joint 14th after a 75, followed by Jordan’s Mohammad Alrawashdeh (77), China’s Gu Liangliang (79), Oman’s Adam Al Barwani and Japanese Komei Onishi (both 80), Sri Lankan Jevhan Mikel Sathasivam and Malaysian Anis Dylan Sinno (both 81), Hong Kong China’s Cheung Yui-yu (82) and UAE’s Abdullah Darwish (88).

Patrick Reed (2006), Moriya Jutanugarn (2008) and Connor Graham (2022) are among the notable winners of a Championship open to the world’s best juniors between the ages of 12 and 16.