SA ladies slow off the mark in Sweden

It was certainly not by design, but 73 turned out to a popular number among the five Sunshine Ladies Tour campaigners in the opening round of the Helsingborg Open in Sweden.

As the curtain fell at the €250,000 European Ladies Tour event Nicole Garcia, Stacy Bregman, Kim Williams, Connie Chen and Swaziland’s Nobuhle Dlamini found themselves bunched together in a tie for 44^th after navigating the Vasatorps Golf Club layout in one over par.

The quintet lags six strokes behind Australian Whitney Hillier, who shares the early lead with Dawi-Claire Schreefel from the Netherlands.

This marks the first time this season that the group of African players all finish on the same number and to further add to the rare tie, Williams, Garcia and Dlamini also registered three birdies, two drops and a double bogey each.

Bregman lost the benefit of three birdies to four bogeys, while Chen erased her four gains with three bogeys and a double bogey.

PHOTO – Nicole Garcia; credit Catherine Kotze / SASPA.