British girls championship final at Royal St David's

Italy's Emilie goes six under 

 

par to win Girls' title
Emilie Paltrinieri, a 14-year-old from Milan, is the new Girls' British U18 champion. She beat 16-year-old Isobel Wardle from Prestbury, near Manchester, by 4 and 3 with a burst of brilliant golf in this afternoon's 18-hole final, played in glorious sunshine, at Royal St David's Golf Club, Harlech in North Wales.
Although Italian girls have reached the final in recent years, Emilie is the first to win the prestigious title since Tullia Calzavarra in the year 2000.
"This is my biggest ever victory," said Emilie, who will be 15 on October 1.
 "I won the English Under-14 girls in 2014 and Italian junior titles as well as the US Kids World and European championships but this one tops them all. I feel very excited to have done it."
Paltrinieri is No. 299 in the Women's World Rankings and No 10 in her native Italy. 

 In comparison, Isobel Wardle - better known to her friends as "Bel," - is No. 508 in the world and No 20 in the English women's ratings.
But in the stroke-play qualifying at the start of the week in Harlech, it was Wardle who earned the eighth seeding with rounds of 71 and 73 for 144 - five better than Paltrinieri who shot 75 and 74 for 149 to be 39th of the 64 match-play qualifiers.
So what brought about the transformation that saw the Italian girl KO the No 2 seed, Madelene Stavnar (Norway) in the quarter-finals, then the British women's champion Julia Engstrom (Sweden) in the semi-finals before capturing the title with brilliant six-under-par figures?
"We are not used in Italy to playing in winds as strong as we have had here this week. So I gradually became accustomed to that and I knew how to play the links and this course a bit better every day," explained Emilie. "
"I also worked on the mistakes I made in the stroke-play."

For Isobel Wardle it was a bitter-sweet afternoon ... her best ever golfing achievement to be one of the two players from a field of 144 to reach the British final, but then to run into an opponent, with whom she was all square at the turn, before Paltrinieri covered the next six holes in six under par and won four of them:
A winning par at the 10th, birdie 2 at the 11th, eagle 3 at the 12th, half in birdies at the 13th, birdie 2 at the 14th, half in birdies to finish the contest at the 15th.
"There was not much I could do against figures like that," said Isobel, "but I enjoyed the experience."
Both girls are, of course, young enough to play in the British girls' championship for a few more years yet.
Both are keen to go to college in America and Emilie's ultimate dream is to turn professional and play on the LPGA Tour in the States.
If she is this good at the age of 14, one wonders what her full potential is.
Isobel, too, is a name to remember. Watch this space. That's her pictured below with the beaten finalist's trophy.

Paltrinieri (3 under par) beats Wardle 4 and 3

Match referee Pam Chugg, Isobel Wardle, LGU president and starter Diane Bailey, holding the Challenge Cup which she herself won in 1961, and Emilie Paltrinieri. Pictured before the start of the final by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

 By COLIN FARQUHARSON 
Isobel Wardle lost the first hole of the final, just about the first time she has trailed in any of her matches at the British girls' open amateur championship at Royal St David's Golf Club, Harlech in North Wales this week.
She pushed her second at little bit to the right of the green  at the testing 422yd first hole and took three more shots to get down.
Emilie Paltrinieri, outdriven, gave her second shot, with wood, a tremendous strike to find the heart of the green for a two-putt winning par 4.
But Wardle bounced back immediately to win the second with a birdie 3 and the third with a par 5 to go one up.
The English player bogeyed the short fourth and Paltrinieri's par 4 squared the match. The remaining holes to the turn were halved in par except for the sixth at which both players achieved birdie3s.
Both players were out in the ladies' par of 37.
 Wardle bogeyed the 10th to go one down for the first time since the opening hole.
Then her Italian opponent stepped up a gear to cover the next five holes in an incredible six under par.
Paltrinieri birdied the short 11th - 2 up.
She got an eagle 3 at the 12th - 3 up.
The 13th was halved in birdie 4s.
Paltrinieri got another birdie 2 at the short 14th - 4 up.
The 15th was halved in birdie  4s.
And so the Italian 14-year-old won the British U18 girls title in 4 and 3 with six under par figures.

 It's England v Italy in British girls' final 

(Wardle v Paltrinieri)

                  Isobel Wardle in action this morning. Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.
COLIN FARQUHARSON REPORTS FROM HARLECH
Isobel Wardle, 16-year-old from Prestbury near Manchester, has become first English player to reach the final of the Girls' British Open Amateur Championship since Georgia Hall won the title at Tenby Golf Club, Wales, in 2012.
The No 8 seed, Isobel, won her semi-final at Royal St David's GC, Harlech, also in Wales, this morning by 2 and 1 over the No. 12 qualifier from Italy, 14-year-old Alessia Nobilio.
In this afternoon's 18-hole final, Wardle will play the surprise packet of the tournament, Emilie Paltrinieri, a 14-year-old from Italy.
Emilie, who was 39th of the 64 match-play qualifiers, followed up her surprise 5 and 3 quarter-final win over the No. 2 seed, Norway's Madelene Stavnar, by beating the No 3 seed, Julia Engstrom (Sweden), by 4 and 2.
Engstrom, at 15, was the youngest ever winner of the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship at Dundonald Links in June.
"I love match-play," said Isobel Wardle after her match in which she was three up after seven and four up after 10.
"But I was very, very nervous over the first two holes before I settled. My hands were shaking after I hit the first tee shot," she said.
"I knew I had to pull myself together if I was not going to let this great chance to reach a British final pass me by. I said to myself 'I really want to win this, so get a grip of yourself,' ... and I did.
"Although I had a good lead for most of the semi-final, I still had to play well to win and I am lucky that my best form of the season has coincided with the British girls' championship.
Wardle won the first hole with a par but was pulled back to square when the young Italian birdied the second.
The third was halved in 5s before Wardle got a birdie 2 at the short fourth to go one up again. Isobel doubled that lead with a 4 at the short sixth and she took the long seventh as well with a par 5 to be three up, a lead she maintained to reach in the turn in roughly par 36.
Wardle went four up with a par at the 10th but lost the 12th to a birdie 4 to be three up with six to play.
The par-5 13th was halved in birdie 4s and the long 15th also was halved in birdies.
Nobilio won 16th with a par 4 to be only two down but Wardle needed only a half at the 17th, which she got, to win the match 2 and 1 with roughly par or one-under-par figures.
Engstrom was not at her best in today's semi-final in which she would have had to be to cope with the sub-par golf produced by the 14-year-old Italian surprise packet of the championship, Emilie Paltrinieri
The Italian was two up at the turn, having won the first with a par and the short ninth with a birdie 2. The other seven holes on the outward journey were halved.
Things began to look ominous for Engstrom when she lost the 10th to a birdie to go three down and then Paltrinieri hit her with another birdie, at the par-5 12th to four up.
Engstrom raised her game one last time, birdieing the long 13th and short 14th to win both and cut her deficit to two.  But instead of carrying on from there, the World No 23 bogeyed the 15th to fall back to three down  and conceded the 16th for a 4 and 2 defeat that was not predicted.
Paltrinieri was roughly two under par for the holes played.
RESULTS

SEMI-FINALS
Isobel Wardle (Prestbury) bt Alessia Nobilio (Italy) 2 and 1.
Emilie Paltrinieri (Italy) bt Julie Engstrom (Sweden) 4 and 2 
 

Emilie Paltrinieri, 14-year-old Italian, has reached the final after being the 39th qualifier. Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency.

Quarter-finals win over Lily-May leaves Isobel 

Wardle looking for somewhere to stay the night

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Saturday morning's Girls' British Open Amateur Championship semi-finals will feature one English 16-year-old, Isobel Wardle (Prestbury), Alessia Nobilio, a 14-year-old Italian, 15-year-old British women's champion Julia Engstrom (Sweden) and Emilie Paltrinieri, a 15-year-old from Italy.

No-one could ever accuse Isobel of counting her chickens before they hatched - her accommodation at Harlech was only booked until Thursday night because, on this her second appearance in the Under-18s championship, she did not think, at the start of the week that she would reach the last four.
"My folks and I will now have to go house-hunting," said Isobel after she won an all-English quarter-final against the English Under-16s champion, Lily-May Humphreys, a 14-year-old from Channels Golf Club, Essex. "At this moment we have nowhere to stay tonight!"
Wardle (pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency), from Prestbury, south of Manchester, beat last year's championship runner-up, Marta Perez Sanmartin (Spain) by 4 and 3 in the morning third-round ties and then scored a 2 and 1 win over Humphreys.
"To be fair to Lily-May," said Isobel, the eighth seed. "It was a really good match and it could have gone either way. I was never down and that was an advantage because it meant she had to chase the game all the way but she did that rather well."
Wardle was roughly level or one under par in a rising wind for the first 16 holes.
"The wind was quite strong by the time we got to the 17th tee and we both misjudged it and we both drove out of bounds. But a half in however many strokes it took was all that concerned me," said Isobel.
Wardle went one up with a par at the third and the fifth was halved in birdie 3s. She went two up with a birdie 4 at the seventh and maintained that clear-cut lead until Lily-May won the 10th and the 11th with pars to square the contest.
"I wouldn't say I was getting anxious but I knew that the next hole, the 12th, was crucial to my hopes of winning," said Isobel.
"I had to stop her run of wins and get one myself which I did with a birdie 4. That put me back into a one-hole lead and I felt a lot better after that going into the closing holes.
"We both got up and down to halve the 14th in par and we both faced 4ft putts for par. I holed mine, Lily-May missed hers and that was me two up with two to play.  Then we both drove out of bounds at the 17th but the hole was halved, leaving me the winner by 2 and 1.
"I've had a different part of my game on song each round. Earlier in the week, I drove very well. Today it was my short game and putting that carried me through.
"Win or lose on Saturday morning, this has to be my best performance at this level of the game."
Having beaten one 14-year-old, Wardle plays another in the semi-final - Alessia Nobilio from Italy, the 12th seed.

Alessia, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, knocked out the No 4 seed, Paula Neira, a 17-year-old from Spain, in the quarter-finals after beating the No 5 seed from Sweden, Beatrice Wallin, by 4 and 3 in the round of the last 16.
Nobilio's victory in itself against Neira was very good but to achieved a 7 and 5 margin against a player of that quality was remarkable. The younger player got off to a flying start anad was three up after only five holes. The sixth was halved in birdie 3s before Nobilio won the seventh and the ninth to be five up at the turn.
Neira never won a hole. Her nightmare continued with losses at the 12th and 13th finishing a one-sided match that few would have predicted.
Julia Engstrom, at 15 the youngest ever winner in the long, long history of the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship at Dundonald Links in June and the highest rated player in the field - she is ranked No 23 in the world, remains the favourite.
She had to go to the 20th, where she won with a bogey, in her morning match against
Germany's Esther Henseleit, the 14th qualifier, but she was back in impressive form in a 5 and 4 quarter-finals win over the 11th qualifier, Sofie Nielsen, a 17-year-old from Denmark.

Engstrom, pictured left by Cal Carson Golf Agency, was one or two under par in beating Nielsen by 5 and 4. One down to a birdie at the sixth, Julia climbed into the driving seat by winning the the seventh with a par, the eighth with a par and the ninth with a par to be two up at the turn.
The 10th was halved before the Swede set off another run that would clinch her place in the last four. Engstrom won the 12th with a par to go three up, the 13th with a birdie to go four up and the 14th with a par for a 5 and 4 success.
In the semi-finals, Julia will play Emilie Paltrinieri, the 15-year-old Italian, beaten the second seed, Norway's Madelene Stavnar by 5 and 3.

Stavnar, the favourite to beat the 39th qualifier, made a good start to be two up after four but that was as good as it got for her.
Paltrinieri, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, won the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth to transform a two-hole deficit into a two-hole lead.

There was no way back for Stavnar after her opponent birdied the 11th to go three up and  went four up with a par at the 12th. Paltrinieri clinched an impressive 5 and 3 victory by winning the 15th.