16 August 2019

Brits lead the way on historic first day at World Invitational

England's Eleanor Givens leads the way after day one at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland.

The event has already been written into the history books as the first in Europe where men and women play on the same courses and compete for equal prize money.

Women and men alternate tee times at Galgorm Castle Golf Club and Massereene Golf Club. The two courses are sharing the hosting duties with one round at each before the cut and then the action all moves to Galgorm for the weekend.

On a damp first day at Galgorm, Givens, 30, shot a six under 67 to go top of the leaderboard, one shot ahead of America's Beth Allen and Karolin Lampert of Germany.  

"I'm really pleased with how I played today," said the clubhouse leader. "I played really solid golf and was really happy with how it was. It’s actually my first time playing with some new clubs I have so it was nice to start with that and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week."

In the men's tournament, Scotland's Criag Ross also carded a six under for the first day and finished one shot ahead of England's Richard Mansell and Gary Stal from France.

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