Thai Galitsky Flourishing on First Links Appearance

Carnoustie, Scotland: Thailand’s Eila Galitsky and Louis Anceaux from France impressed to reach the quarter-finals of the R&A Girls’ and Boys’ Amateur championships at Carnoustie.

For the first time, the match play stages of the Girls’ and Boys’ Amateur are being played simultaneously at one venue over the renowned Angus links.

On a cooler and windier day at last year’s AIG Women’s Open venue, conditions were trickier but it proved no hindrance to Galitsky. Experiencing links golf for the first time this week, the 15-year-old was victorious against Maggie Whitehead from England to progress to the last-eight of the Girls’ Amateur.

Galitsky said: “I feel great. I played a really great round and she played a great round, too. But I just hit it close. That’s how I won today, just by making birdies.

“This is my first time on links and my first time in Europe. It’s very different from what I’m used to so I’m just glad that I played well. Good shots become bad shots, bad shots become good shots. You need a lot of patience, so I’m just building up my stamina for the links.”

Galitsky, the sole Thailand player in the field, is joined in the quarter-finals by Wales’ Emily James, Nathalie Borg from Sweden, Spaniard Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and a quartet of English players.

Having yesterday knocked out the leading stroke play qualifier Paula Martin Sampedro, Amelia Wan continued her form with a 4&2 win over another Spaniard, Julia Sanchez Morales.

Lottie Woad, winner of the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters this year, battled to a 2&1 win against Paula Balanzategui Garcia, also from Spain. Rachel Gourley and Ellise Rymer are the other two English players in the last-eight and they face each on Saturday morning. Gourley saw off Avani Prashanth from India 4&2 while Rymer defeated Spain’s Paula Francisco 3&2.

Previous winners of the Girls’ Amateur include major champions Georgia Hall and Anna Nordqvist and, more recently, Pia Babnik, already a two-time winner on the Ladies’ European Tour.

With the rounds of 32 and 16 played in the Boys’ Amateur on Friday, Anceaux was among those to impress as he defeated highly-ranked Spaniard Jamie Montojo Fernandez, 5&3.

The 17-year-old Frenchman got off to the ideal start, winning the first three holes, and didn’t let his opponent, who is ranked 150th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, find a way back into the match.

Fernandez’s compatriot Jorge Siyuan Hao maintained his impressive form to secure his last-eight place against Anceaux, but England’s Jack Lee made him work hard for the win, taking the match down the last before missing the decisive par putt to keep the match alive.

It was a good afternoon for the Swedes with Albert Hansson seeing off the challenge of Thomas Buisson from France by 3&2 and Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson coming through by 2&1 against Italy’s Filippo Ponzano.

Wales’ Caolan Burford is joined by Englishmen Kris Kim and Morgan Blythe in Saturday’s round of eight while Eugenio Bernardi is flying the flag for Italy after winning the last match against Swede Wilmer Edero.

Hopes of a home winner were ended in the morning’s round of 32 when Scottish Men’s Amateur Champion Oliver Mukherjee was dismissed 4&3 by Hao and Cormac Sharpe lost out by 3&1 against Joe Jones from Wales. Irish hopes were also ended when Adam Kelly was defeated by Anceaux 4&2.

The quarter-finalists are bidding to join a championship roll of honour that includes Matt Fitzpatrick, Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal and Ewen Ferguson, the current leader at the ISPS Handa World Invitational on the DP World Tour.