AUGUSTA AGONY FOR HANNAH DARLING AS WORLD NO 1 ROSE ZHANG STORMS FIVE SHOTS CLEAR

Hannah Darling agonisingly missed out on making it through to the final round as world No 1 Rose Zhang moved into a commanding position after 36 holes in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Darling, the sole Scot in the field, needed to finish among the top 30 and ties after the opening two circuits at Champions Retreat to make it through to Saturday’s final 18 holes at Augusta National for the second year in a row.

But, after a lengthy wait as she followed an opening 74 with a 73 for a three-over-par total, the 19-year-old Broomieknowe member came up one stroke short as 32 players, including English duo Charlotte Heath and Caley McGinty, progressed.

“My strategy was not to know what the score was and then, when you walk to the 10th tee, there is a massive scoreboard,” said Darling. “Then there is another scoreboard on the 18th, so I knew where I was. Didn't want to, but I knew where I was.”

Following a one hour’s fog delay, the University of South Carolina sophomore birdied the par-5 third but then bogeyed the eighth and 11th, both par-3s. She moved back above the cut line by holing out of a greenside bunker for a birdie at the par-4 16th only to give that back straight away through a three-putt from about 60 feet at the short 17th before being unable to convert a 20-foot birdie chance at last.

“Had a really good bunker shot on 16 for birdie. That was really nice,” said Darling. “Then just had an unfortunate three-putt on 17. Didn't really hole anything today, so that just kind of led to it. I had almost birdie putts on every hole coming in, other than 16, 17.

“There is nothing wrong with my game right now at all. But I guess there is added pressure on those putts, and I would say that's probably why they didn't drop, to be honest. But you just got to go with it. There is pressure whenever you're playing. Yeah, you're always playing with that.”

On a day when Korea’s Bohyun Park made the first hole-in-one in the tournament’s short history, which came at the eighth, followed her opening 66 with a 65, which was illuminated by an eagle at the ninth.

On 13-under-par, the 19-year-old American, who was the leading amateur in last year’s AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield, sits five shots clear of Swede Andrea Lignell, with Jenny Bae one shot further back in third place.

2023-03-30T20:51:33Z dg43tfdfdgfd