The 120th Women's Amateur: Lindblad through to final 16

Ingrid Lindblad lived up to her status as the new women’s amateur world number one after a convincing victory to reach the last-32 stage in The 120^th Women’s Amateur Championship at Prince’s.

The 23-year-old, who finished in a tie for second place in stroke play qualifying, eased to an 8&7 success over Bailey Shoemaker to continue her form on the glorious Kent links.

Lindblad won the first two holes and never looked back as the Swede – who took over from Rose Zhang at the summit of the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking last week – set up a tie with England’s Patience Rhodes, who won the St Rule Trophy two weeks ago, in the next round.

It proved a bittersweet day for Shoemaker, who defeated Scotland’s Penelope Brown in the preliminary round with the help of a hole-in-one. The 18-year-old, who reached the semi-finals in the 2022 US Women's Amateur, aced the 11^th with a 9-iron.

Mackintosh defeats defending Champion Baker

There was joy for another Scottish player, Jasmine Mackintosh, who ended the hopes of defending champion, Jess Baker. Mackintosh, winner of the Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open in April, survived Baker’s fightback from four holes down with six to play to win on the 18^th.

Leading stroke play qualifier Beth Coulter was also victorious, beating Spain’s Paula Francisco 2&1, while Spaniard Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, the world number three, progressed after ousting Australian Abbie Teasdale 2&1.

Playing in match play for the first time, 13-year-old Lucy Lin of Cyprus also advanced to the last-32 with a 6&5 win over 2022 US Women's Mid-Amateur champion Krissy Carman. Last August, at the age of 12, Lin became the youngest to qualify for the LPGA Tour’s CP Women’s Open.

On her first visit to the UK, Australian Caitlin Peirce has quickly adapted to the hard and fast conditions and is still in the title hunt after beating Aine Donegan 4&3.

But other Championship hopefuls bowed out including R&A Student Tour Series winner Lorna McClymont and Thailand’s Eila Galitsky, the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific victor in March. McClymont lost 2&1 to Spain’s Paula Martin Sampedro and Galitsky was beaten by one hole against the USA’s Catherine Rao. Fellow American Latanna Stone also lost out at the 19^th to her LSU teammate Edit Hertzman of Sweden.

Late in the day, Hannah Darling fought hard to progress by a hole against another Swede, Nathalie Borg, as the top-ranked Great Britain and Ireland player in the field maintained her bid.

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.

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.