Tanah Merah Country Club, Thursday, February 28, 2008 – Amelia Yong, the first Singaporean ever to compete at a Ladies Professional Golf Association event, was 5-over-par after the first round of the HSBC Women’s Champions.
“I started off well on the first hole. It was not that bad. I had a par. Then the next hole, I made a double. But after that, it got better and better and then I finished up the front nine with 1-over with a bogey on the last.”
The 16-year-old, Secondary four St Joseph’s Convent student, whose main aim is to make even par, added: “Then, I don’t know why, but I just started playing really badly. I didn’t chip it well, I didn’t putt it well. I missed quite a lot of seven-footers. I wasn’t playing very well, probably because I was a bit tired.”
Amelia teed off at the 10th hole at 10:10 a.m. and finished her 18 holes at around 2:30 p.m. “Actually I doubled the third to the last hole. I had a double. I three-putted it. And then I thought, ‘Okay, fine. I’m going to bogey everything,’ and I ended up bogeying. Then the par 3 I parred it, and then I birdied the last hole.”
And what was going through her mind at the last hole when she was 6-over?
“I was six-over, and then I was thinking, ‘I like the number 6. Why don’t I just play par? And then I was thinking maybe I should just play my best because this is quite a big event. I might really need this next time, so I just played my best and I got a birdie.”
Asked what she has picked up observing the pros play, the 1.7 handicapper said: “I realize that they’re very focused, like through their shots. And then like walking to your ball you can like totally switch off, then they get back into the game again. You can't be on your game the whole time or you get very tired mentally.”
Amelia teed off yesterday with Australian Lindsey Wright and South Korean Ahn Shi Hyun, who were 4-over and even-par respectively.
When asked about her coach Greg Ankatell’s reaction to her game today, Amelia said: “He says I’m playing very well. He says I’ve been very disobedient. I said I’d just play two on and then from forty feet away I sink my putt. It’s not good thinking in that way, but then it’s a forty-foot putt, you usually don’t hit it. For me, it’s a three-putt zone, but I got it. The forty-foot putt was on the short par four, the eight hole. That’s the longest putt that I sank.”
So why did she get tired going into the last nine holes?
“Well, when I was in the last nine, I was on the seventh hole, I was actually asking myself, was I very tired mentally or physically? Well, I wasn’t tired mentally or physically, but I just felt tired, so maybe mentally. I’m not sure. There’s no pressure on me because I’m not playing for the money, I’m just playing for a spot, so no pressure.”
Amelia, who tees of today at 10:10 a.m. with Americans Carri Wood (5-over) and Cristie Kerr (4-over), shared her final thoughts on the day: “I thought I handled it quite well. On the first tee I wasn’t feeling that bad. I thought I would be feeling worse. It was quite fun, actually.”
Amelia Yong statistics:
AFTER ROUND 1 – TOTAL SCORE: 77(+5)
HOLE:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 IN
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 OUT
PAR:
4 4 3 4 5 4 4 3 5 36
4 3 4 5 3 5 4 4 4 36
TOTAL: 72
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RD 1:
4 5 4 4 5 6 5 3 4 40
4 5 5 4 3 4 3 4 5 37
TOTAL: 77
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