Canadian with Scottish roots tames tough Troon to set AIG Women's Open pace

The wind was gusting up to 40mph on the opening morning of the AIG Women's Open, which is being staged at Royal Troon for the first time. Picture: R&A via Getty Images

Canadian Alena Sharp felt her Scottish ancestors were "watching over me" as she recovered from a nightmare start to tame Royal Troon on a tough morning in the AIG Women's Open.

With winds gusting up to 40mph, the 39-year-old hit her tee shot out of bounds at the first in the opening group alongside Laura Davies and Olivia Mehaffey to start the historic first staging of the event at the Ayrshire venue with a double-bogey 6.

Using that as a "wake up", though, Sharp covered the remaining 17 holes in two-under to set the clubhouse target with a par-71, following back-to-back birdies at the fourth and fifth with four more in a brilliant back nine of 32.

To put the effort into context in the conditions, former world No 1 Davies signed for an 80 after being handed the honour of hitting the opening tee shot in her 40th appearance in the event.

"I am absolutely thrilled because it's obviously not the way I wanted to start the day," said Clark of her opening hole, which, in fairness, was playing a lot more difficult than normal due to it playing almost straight into a howling wind.

"But it actually woke me up a little bit. I started playing some good golf shots after that and made a few putts. I was just in grind mode the rest of the day.

"I seem to be one of those wind players later on in my career. I hated playing in the wind before, but now I really enjoy. You just have to do your best to keep it in the short grass and make a lot of two-putts."

Even that was proving difficult as the first women's major of 2020 quickly became a damage limitation exercise on the opening day, with conditions set to be equally testing for Friday's second round.

"We were thinking we might get away with a little less wind at 6.30, but, when we were warming up, it was blowing. Fences were blowing down," added Sharp, who hails from Hamilton in Ontario.

"It was very tricky, the first eight or nine holes the wind is off the right and then you turn and it goes off the left and it's down.

"So I had to change my game plan on the back nine a lot with tee shots, but I kept it in the fairway, which is very helpful and I played pretty well going downwind on the back nine."

Sharp, whose biggest win came on the Symertra Tour, the LPGA Tour's feeder circuit, in 2014, lives in Phoenix but revealed she has Scottish roots.

"I was so ecstatic to see that we were going to get to play Royal Troon and it wasn't going to get cancelled," she said of this week's event getting the go ahead in a "bio-bubble".

"I have ancestry from here. My grandmother was born in Greenock and my uncle was born in Glasgow. I feel like they were watching over me today and giving me a little help out there."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy YatesEditorial Director