Céline Boutier hits the ground running in South Korea

A week after her fine 9th place in Thailand, Frenchwoman Céline Boutier produced a very clean performance in the first round of the BMW Ladies Championship in Seoul, South Korea. At the end of a first day prolific in birdies she occupies fifth place, two shots behind a trio of leaders.

A South African, an Australian, a Japanese, a Scottish, a French and five South Koreans!

In what Koreans consider to be the Superbowl of women’s golf in South Korea, the top 10 in the rankings at the evening of the first day in Seoul are ultimately quite international.

With still 18 representatives from the Republic of Korea for a field limited to 78 players, the BMW Ladies Championship could not escape a local stage on Sunday on the route of Seowon Valley Country Club a few kilometers north of the capital populated by 10 million souls.

Céline Boutier’s flawless performance

In this second of four legs of the LPGA Asian Tour, Celine Boutier showed herself to her advantage from the start, like last year when she took fifth place 4 shots behind Minjee Lee.

On this route which for the first time in 5 editions was renewed to host the event, she signed the same 66 as for her start to the 2023 tournament.

4 birdies and an eagle at 8 rewarded a very solid performance from the now world number 10 as evidenced by her 14 fairways hit out of 14, her 18 greens in regulation and her 30 putts. Stats which confirm his return to the forefront after a somewhat “disappointing” summer by his standards.

Le Leaderboard

© Michael Reaves Getty AFP