Opening Golf to the World
The Women's Amateur
Mayo sets the pace at The Women's Amateur Championship
22 Jun 26
5 mins
Wales’ Gracie Mayo put together an excellent round of links golf to fire an opening of six-under-par 65, seizing the clubhouse lead on day one of stroke play qualifying at The Women's Amateur Championship.
On an opening day at Muirfield where scoring conditions were favourable in East Lothian, Mayo's performance positioned her one stroke clear of France's Vairana Heck, who carded a five-under round highlighted by a hole-in-one. Defending champion Paula Martin Sampedro and Sweden's Kajsalotta Svarvar and occupy a share of third place. For Mayo, a recent graduate of the University of Oklahoma, a return to links fairways has been highly anticipated. Despite spending the last few years playing collegiate golf in the United States of America, the Royal Porthcawl member showed no signs of rust on the classic Scottish links, navigating the course with confidence. Mayo's round was steady throughout, with her solitary dropped shot coming at the tricky par-4 16th. She said, "I've been waiting to come back to links golf for a while, so it's been nice to put my golf to the test again. I think I'm quite close to reality, so I think 16 is a tough hole. If you're going to drop a shot anywhere, I think that was the place to do it. I didn't feel as though I lost too much on the field there, but obviously made it up everywhere else." Adding to the occasion for Mayo (pictured above) is a special family dynamic on the bag, with her father handling caddie duties this week while her mother watches on as a spectator. She added, "It's great. I mean, I wouldn't be anywhere without them today. It's really great to walk these fairways with my dad. They put a lot of time and effort in with me, and I don't take that for granted because I don't get to spend a lot of time with them. So it's pretty cool to be walking Muirfield with them." For the 21-year-old the prestige of The Women’s Amateur Championship matches anything she faced across the Atlantic. She said, "Every year I've tried to play in this tournament, I play in it. It's one of the best tournaments of the year and it's just as equal of a test as college golf, if not more. We put a lot of time and effort into this sport so it's nice when it plays off every once in a while."
Vairana Heck is presented with a pin flag, by Secretary of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers Stuart McEwan, for her ace on the 16th hole at Muirfield.
Sitting solo second is Heck, whose round featured a major highlight during the morning wave. Facing a steady breeze on Muirfield's testing 16th, the Frenchwoman executed a five-iron that found the bottom of the cup for her second career hole-in-one.
She said, "I struck it pretty well. "It was into the wind so I hit it a bit low with a fade and then I just saw it bounce. Then I was like, 'It might be in,' and then, yeah, it was in. We all laughed and clapped. It was good."
Remarkably, Heck was not the only player, let alone Frenchwoman, to find magic on the short holes today. Championship debutant Gisele Zhou also recorded a hole-in-one during her opening round on the 4th.
Despite sitting towards the top of the leaderboard, Heck is keeping her expectations firmly in check.
She said, "It's a long, long tournament, so I'll just go day by day and see how I feel every day. I really like this championship. Everything is perfect, everybody is so welcoming and the organisation is perfect. I just want to keep the momentum going and keep doing what I'm doing."
Reigning Women's Amateur Champion Paula Martin Sampedro, who played alongside last year's runner-up Farah O'Keefe (left), finished round one tied-third.
Meanwhile, defending champion Martin Sampedro began her title defence in steady fashion, signing for a clean, bogey-free scorecard to keep herself within striking distance of the lead.
The Spaniard emphasised that success at Muirfield boils down to disciplined course management and avoiding the track's punishing hazards.
She said, "I'm actually very proud of that. Especially since these courses require a lot of strategy, and just every single shot requires a lot of thought. It's mostly about the good places where you want to be and definitely bunkers you want to avoid, and that sometimes is not as easy as it looks."
Sampedro's extensive links experience - including a top-amateur finish at the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl - continues to pay dividends early in the week. "I've come to like links golf a lot. It requires a lot of mental game, patience and course strategy,” she added “It’s definitely a very different approach from other courses that we might play back in college."
With the opening round setting a highly competitive benchmark, attention now turns to the crucial second round as players battle to secure a spot inside the top 64 for the match play stages.
View the leaderboard from day one of The Women's Amateur Championship here.