Kentucky, United States: Justice Bosio made a bright start in her bid to emulate Minjee Lee by becoming only the second Australian to win the US Girls’ Junior Championship.
Winner of the US Women’s Open last month at Pine Needles, it was in 2012 that Lee announced her arrival on the world stage by capturing the Girls’ title.
Aiming to follow in her footsteps, 18-year-old Bosio carded an opening three-under-par 69 at The Club at Olde Stone in the 73rd edition of the US Girls’ Junior Championship.
That put her in a share of second place with Americans Farah O'Keefe and Yana Wilson, and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Hsin-tai, who posted the only bogey-free round of the day on the 6,484-yard, par-73 Arthur Hills design that opened in 2006.
On an ideal day for scoring, it was 18-year-old Canadian Lauren Zaretsky who set the pace after the first round of stroke play with a five-under 68.
Of the other Asia-Pacific players in the field, Saki Baba is tied for sixth after a 70 followed by fellow Japanese Nika Ito (tied 12th, 71), New Zealand’s Fiona Xu and China’s Michelle Zhang Yunxuan (tied 19th, 72), Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chun-wei and Liao Hsin-chun (tied 31st, 73).
Another Chinese Taipei player, Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan, is joint 40th on 74 while Indian Anika Varma and Samantha Dizon of the Philippines are among those in equal 58th after 75s with Hong Kong’s Wu Siuue and Japan’s Tsubasa Kajitani, last year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, both returning 77s for a share of 95th.
New Zealand’s Consuela Guo, Singaporean Jaymie Ng and China’s Li Mi are a further stoke back (109th).
Zaretsky, an incoming freshman at Texas Tech University who won the 2021 Canadian Women’s Amateur to become fully exempt for this championship, was buoyed by an eagle-three on the long 11th and consecutive birdies on 17 and 18 to close out the round. The powerfully built Ontario resident laced a five-iron from 206 yards to eight feet on the 505-yard 11th. Despite a three-putt bogey on 14 and another bogey on 16, she rebounded nicely with a 10-foot birdie on 17 and a two-footer on the par-five 18th.
“I know I can shoot low,” said Zaretsky. “My biggest advantage is my driver. I’m pretty confident with it. The longer-hitter part of me has an advantage on this course, especially if you put it in play and your putting gets going, it’s possible to go low.”
The second and final round of stroke play will be contested on Tuesday after which the field will be cut to the low 64 scorers for match play, which begins on Wednesday.