Artis, Oh lead Aust Classic women’s golf

Rebecca Artis and Sarah Oh top the leaderboard after Friday’s opening round of the inaugural Australia Classic women’s golf tournament in Sydney.

Starting in wet conditions, the NSW pair carded impressive seven-under-par rounds at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club to lead the limited-field event by three shots over Thailand’s Wichanee and China’s Yanhong Pan.

Five players share fifth place at three under including South Australia’s Stephanie Na.

Artis’ name has been on top of the leaderboards all summer during other ALPG events, her round including three birdies in her opening nine, before posting another five on the back nine.

A three-putt from long range on the 18th was her only blemish.

The Coonabarabran golfer has been working on some technical aspects of her game and it is working.

“I played really good; I hit the ball really solid. Been doing some pretty solid work last week on the Gold Coast after Morocco, fixed my swing up a bit, being doing a fair bit of technical stuff but got it back on track and hit the ball really good today – hit some pretty high-quality iron shots.

“Hit it fairly close; probably didn’t have a putt there, for a stretch, over four metres.”

For Oh, who fired a flawless round which included seven birdies, she had no preparation.

“I work at Lane Cove Pro-shop and look after the Korean international students and help them out.”

“My goal was just to have a great day and fun day out there, to be honest.”

Oh, is surprised to be where she is, but she is a two-time winner of the Women’s NSW Open and wants to go on with it.

“It is very surprising to be honest, but I am up there, so I have a great chance this week – just need to get the game back going.”

Among other notables in the field, a pregnant Nikki Campbell, shares 10th place at two under, while Rachel Hetherington and Stacey Keating are tied 24th after carding one-over-par 73s.

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