Keating leads as Lovelady hits hole-in-one at Buick Championship

Stacey Keating shot a course record nine-under par 63 Shanghai Qizhong Garden Golf Club on Thursday to take lead after the first round of the Buick Championship.

The Australian holed 10 birdie putts, including seven in eight holes from the seventh, to lead world No 5 Shanshan Feng from China.

“I hit the ball nicely from tee to green but I holed a lot of putts and got a bit lucky at times. When it’s your day, it’s your day I guess,” said the 28-year-old from Melbourne.

“I had a bunker shot at the last and it hit the pin and finished right next to it whereas on any other day it probably would have run off the green.”

Xiyu Lin fired a six under par 66 to sit in third place but the winner of the recent Sanya Ladies Open had an early lead after eight birdies in 16 holes before she double-bogeyed the last.

Lin said: “Today I didn’t really think I could have that many birdies - I was just trying to have a good strategy and trying to hit the ball to the widest place.”

Big Victory

But the day belonged to Brazilian Victory Lovelady whose hole-in-one at the 187-yard 16th saw her win a £45,000 Buick GL8.

After completing a round of 71, she told reporters: “I started today playing a little but poorly: I started bogey, par, bogey.

“Right before the hole in one I had a birdie so I was happy. With that shot, the wind was crossed, right to left. From the practice round I remembered that the green was very firm so I thought, ‘I’m just going to have fun here, hit a draw and let the wind take it and do my best’.

Ladies European Tour Golf

“All of a sudden, I see the ball crossing in front of the flag. It bounced left of the flag and then all of a sudden the ball goes right and hits the pin and I hear the noise and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe it just went in!’

“I was hugging all the caddies and all the players and everyone was happy so it was a lot of fun. Then everyone started to point behind my back. I was just happy with my score but then all of a sudden I had won a Buick and that was really amazing.”