Hannah Darling makes record eight birdies to lead Augusta National Women's Amateur

Scot produces stunning opening effort at Champions Retreat with Catriona Matthew looking on

Hannah Darling chips to the 14th green during round one of the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Champions Retreat Golf Club. Picture: Chloe Knott/Augusta National.

Scotland’s Hannah Darling produced a record-breaking performance to lead after the first round of the fifth edition of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in Georgia.

Making her third successive appearance in the prestigious event, the Broomieknowe player carded eight birdies - the most recorded in a single round in the tournament - at Champions Retreat in Evans, close to Augusta, as she signed for a six-under-par 66.

Darling, who is in her junior year at University of South Carolina, started with three straight birdies and ended up having three 2s on her card.

The stunning effort earned the two-time Curtis Cup player a one-shot lead over world No 1 Ingrid Lindblad from Sweden, Italian Francesca Fiorellini and Thailand’s Eila Galitsky.

“The way I thought my way around the golf course was great today,” said Darling, who admitted that a recent breakthrough win on the US college circuit had given her a huge confidence boost. “I was really disciplined. Me and my caddie, we made some really smart targets and we were just hitting committed shots to those targets.”

Catriona Matthew, the GB&I captain for this year’s Curtis Cup match at Sunningdale, is taking in this week’s event and was watching Darling for part of her round.

“Yeah, I did,” said Darling in reply to being asked if she’d spotted her fellow Scot. “I think she followed me pretty much the whole day. That's cool. She's a great person and she's been a role model to me growing up. She's done what most Scottish amateurs want to do in their professional career and I'm really excited to hopefully play under her this year at the Curtis Cup.”

The top 30 and ties after two rounds at Champions Retreat will progress to the third and final circuit at Augusta National on Saturday.

Darling finished joint-27th on her debut in the event in 2022, when she made history along with West Kilbride’s Louise Duncan as the first Scots to tee up in the tournament. She then agonisingly missed out on making it back to Augusta National by a single shot 12 months ago.

England’s Lottie Woad also started strongly with a four-under 68 but her compatriot, Charlotte Heath, struggled to a 76.