| -8 HJ Choi (Kor); -7 C Boutier (Fra), L Ko (Nzl), L Vu (USA); -6 G Hall (Eng), N An (Kor); -5 HJ Kim (Kor), M Leblanc (Can), Andrea Lee (USA), P Roussin-Bouchard (Fra), Minjee Lee (Aus), Alison Lee (USA), L Harm (Ger) |
| Full leaderboard |
England’s Georgia Hall capitalised on the benign early conditions to lie two shots off the Women’s Scottish Open lead after an opening six-under 66.
Hall posted seven birdies and one bogey at Dundonald Links, where pacesetter Hye-Jin Choi of Korea covered her last five holes in five under.
“I’m really happy and enjoying playing links golf again,” said Hall, the 2018 Women’s British Open champion.
Gemma Dryburgh’s 69 has her tied 18th and highest of the five Scots involved.
Hall, 26, added: “Everything was pretty good – didn’t really miss a shot and managed to hole some good putts.
“Any time in the morning you know that you’re probably going to have the easiest conditions and I tried to take advantage of that.”
Despite the afternoon starters bearing the brunt of heavy rain that left standing water on the Ayrshire course, Hall’s Solheim Cup partner Celine Boutier and former world number one Lydia Ko flourished to shoot 65 and join American Lilia Vu in second place – one shot behind Choi.
England’s Bronte Law and defending champion Ryann O’Toole of the USA are four shots off the leader.
World number one Jin Young Ko is in a group, including England’s Charley Hull, tied for 32nd place after shooting a one-under-par 70.
