In the first round of the Mission Inn Resort and Club Championship presented by IOA, Matilda Castren (Helsinki, Finland) claimed the 18-hole lead after carding four birdies and one eagle to finish with a 5-under par 68.
“I hit the ball pretty well today actually,” said Castren. “I think I hit all of the greens so I am hoping to bring that into tomorrow and make a couple more putts. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how my first round went.”
Castren is coming off the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last week, where she made her fifth cut of the season with the LPGA Tour and had her career-best finish on the LPGA Tour at tied for 23rd. Making both cuts in two starts this year so far, this is her third event in 2020 on the “Road to the LPGA.”
“I love playing on the Epson Tour. I have a lot of friends here,” said Castren. “It was a great time last week and I'm I feel confident after finishing well. I just wanted to come on here and play some golf and have some fun.”
DRYBURGH RETURNS TO EPSON TOUR
Gemma Dryburgh (Aberdeen, Scotland), found seven birdies this morning on El Campeon in the first round to take her into tomorrow one-stroke back from the lead. This is Dryburgh’s first event on the Epson Tour since 2017 where she made six cuts in ten starts and claimed a season-best tie for thirteen. Earlier this year she had a career-best finish at the LPGA Drive On Championship finishing tied for sixth after a return from the COVID-19 break.
“It’s been great coming back this week. It's relaxed, it's nice to see some of the girls, so I am enjoying it so far,” said Dryburgh. “LPGA Drive On earlier this year was great and it was my best finish on LPGA, so it was special, so it's been yeah pretty good year overall.”
Keeping prepared for the LPGA Tour’s return, Dryburgh was able to compete in the Rose Ladies Series, organized by Justin and Kate Rose. Dryburgh captured back to back wins in July at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club and Royal St. George’s Golf Club.
“It’s amazing, just to have a guy like him, with such a high profile behind us, got us great media coverage,” said Dryburgh. “We played some amazing courses as well, which meant a lot to us playing. I think they're trying to do something similar next year during like a break in the schedule so it would be nice to play again.”
AIME BUILDING ON HER 2020 SEASON
Finishing with a birdie on No. 18, making it six in total for the day, Julie Aime (Nice, France) is tied for third with four other players two back from the lead at 3-under par in Howey-In-The-Hills. Despite hitting into the water on No. 15, Aime kept control of the round.
“The birdie on the last was awesome. I actually started off really hot. I mean everything was pretty solid today. I started off with like four birdies and actually after that 7th hole, which is easy part five I didn't take advantage of it, I went on a birdie drought after that,” said Aime. “I made a mistake on that par 3, I guess wrong club. I mean it looked perfect in the air and just when it landed it went in the water behind, so that cost me two shots right there but I'm really happy I finished with the birdie and caught up to still be on top of the leaderboard.”
This year, Aime has finished twice in the top-10 on the Epson Tour Including tied for fifth at the IOA Championship presented by Morongo Casino Resort and Spa but has not made the last two cuts.
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