The 120th Women's Amateur: Lindblad and Coulter make quarter-finals

Leading stroke play qualifier Beth Coulter and the world’s leading women’s amateur golfer Ingrid Lindblad continued their title challenges by reaching the quarter-finals of The 120^th Women’s Amateur Championship at Prince’s.

Coulter, 19, who is making her fifth appearance in The Women’s Amateur, has maintained the form that saw the Irish player lead the 36-hole stroke play qualifying by three shots while Lindblad continues to shine in glorious conditions on the Kent coast.

Coulter reached the last eight for the first time after overcoming Lucy Lin, the talented 13-year-old from Cyprus, at the first extra hole of their last-32 encounter, before also coming through a close contest with France’s Justine Fournand to win by two holes. Three birdies in the last seven holes helped Coulter defeat Fournand and set up a quarter-final with Sweden’s Elin Pudas Remler, who edged out Spaniard Andrea Revuelta in the last-16 at the 19^th hole.

Lindblad underlined her status as the world’s leading women’s amateur by only dropping one shot on the way to winning two high-quality contests. In the last-16, the Swede took on Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio – third in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and runner-up in the R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship at Carnoustie last year – with an eagle at the par-5 12^th the highlight of a 4&3 victory.

Earlier, Lindblad was six-under-par in a morning meeting with Patience Rhodes, recent winner of the St Rule Trophy. Rhodes registered seven birdies of her own – there were 13 between the pair – but bogeys cost the English player as she lost out by two holes. Lindblad now faces an all-Sweden tie with Kajsa Arwefjall, who survived a comeback from Francesca Fiorellini to beat the Italian 3&1.

Ten countries were represented among the last-16 players, including four from Sweden and one from Lithuania, namely Gile Bite Starkute.

Catherine Rao from the United States of America was the first player to reach the last eight after defeating Sweden’s Nora Sundberg 3&2 and now faces an all-American reunion with her compatriot Annabelle Pancake. The pair met in the last-16 of the US Women’s Amateur last year, with Rao winning 4&3.

Pancake defeated Hannah Darling 2&1 in the last-32, ending the hopes of the leading Great Britain and Ireland player, before a one-hole victory against Paula Schulz-Hanssen from Germany.

Wales’ Ffion Tynan advanced to the quarter-finals to continue a run of reaching the last-16 of The Women’s Amateur in each of the past three years. The 20-year-old secured a 3&2 win against Dane Olivia Gronborg and then ousted Starkute 5&3. Tynan faces Chiara Horder tomorrow, following the German’s 2&1 triumph over Caitlin Peirce from Australia.

Chance to play in the AIG Women's Open

The winner of the Championship gains entry to the AIG Women’s Open, the US Women’s Open, the Amundi Evian Championship, the Chevron Championship and, by tradition, will earn an invitation to compete at the Augusta National Women's Amateur.

The remaining players are also aiming to join an impressive list of past Women’s Amateur winners including major winners Georgia Hall, Catriona Matthew and Anna Nordqvist and LPGA victor Leona Maguire.

The R&A will again provide live video coverage of the quarter-finals and semi-finals on Saturday and Final on Sunday. This can be watched on The R&A’s website, www.randa.org, as well as its YouTube channel. Live coverage of the morning sessions on Saturday and Sunday is also being broadcast by Sky Sports Golf, with live updates throughout the afternoon action. The live stream will begin at 8am on Saturday and 8.15am on Sunday.

View scoring from The Women’s Amateur Championship here.

Spectators are welcome

Spectators are welcome to attend The Women’s Amateur Championship with tickets available to purchase at www.randa.org. Adult tickets are available from £10, with a four-day ticket just £25.

To encourage children and young people to attend The Women’s Amateur Championship, The R&A will continue the successful ‘Kids go Free’ programme which provides children under-16-years-old free entry to the Championship when accompanied by a paying adult. Half-price youth tickets are also available for 16-24-year-olds.