It was going badly for Jodi Ewart Shadoff on the first day of the Amundi Evian Championship, until her ace at the par 3 16th.
The fourth women’s major championship got underway on Thursday, with 132 players taking to the Champions Course at the Evian Resort. However, Shadoff was one to struggle in the early running.
She was as low at 8-over-par through 13 holes. She went out in 40 thanks to having both a triple bogey and double bogey on her card.
It got worse before it got better for Shadoff, with bogeys also coming at 10, 12 and 13, in what is well known as the toughest stretch of holes on the layout.
However, a birdie on the 14th was followed two holes later by the perfect shot at the glorious par 3 16th.
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The Englishwoman knocked it slightly right of the flagstick, before a lovely bounce kicked the ball towards the hole.
“I struck it really nicely. It was a little right of the pin so I knew it needed the left bounce off that slope,” Shadoff said after her round.
“It was going straight at the hole and I was like, oh, man, this is a chance.”
Not only did Shadoff make an ace and get herself closer to level par, but she also won a brand new Porsche for her troubles. She was seen pretending to hug the car behind the tee box in her celebrations.
There was only one Porsche on offer as well, with Shadoff taking the prize off the table for any other possible holes-in-one at the 16th this week.
Two Holes, Two Aces
Incredibly, Shadoff’s ace was not the only one on the opening day of the Amundi Evian Championship.
The first of the championship came at the recently extended 5th hole. Taiwanese amateur Chun-Wei Wu hit the perfect shot at the 185 yard par 3 on Thursday morning.
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Wu, who is eligible to play in the tournament after winning the Women’s Asia-Pacific Amateur earlier this year, landed her approach just a few feet short fo the flag before it rolled out and in to the cup.
The Taiwanese 19-year-old carded a level par round of 71 to kick off her tournament, on what has been a low-scoring day so far in eastern France.
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