Yorkshire golf: Karen Jobling and Julie Wheeldon progress after English seniors washout

A member of the greens staff at Ross-on-Wye GC at work on a flood green (Picture: Leaderboard Photography).

Richmond GC's Karen Jobling was in third place after a first-round two-over-par 75 while Wakefield GC's Julie Wheeldon was tied 11th on 80.

Play was abandoned when greens and fairways flooded on the course, which was already soaked from Tuesday's heavy rain.

Qualifying for the match play stage of the championship has been decided on the first-round scores, with the leading 16 players going forward. A tie for 16th place was determined on count back.

The qualifiers include defending champion Helen Lowe (Scraptoft GC) .

Wheeldon will be first out on Thursday at 8am against Katherine Russell (Royal Ashdown Forest GC) and Jobling will face Carol Houghton (The Nottinghamshire GC).

The match play will take place over two days with the final played on Friday afternoon.

Players placed 17th to 64th qualified for the second flight stroke play competition, which will also be played Thursday and Friday.

Yorkshire players involved in this will be Huddersfield GC’s Pat Wrightson, who shot 82 on Tuesday, Pauline Bramley and Val Swales (Hallamshire GC), 87 and 89 respectively; Laraine Hague (Ganton GC), 92, and Sand Moor GC’s Helen Duckett, 97.

England Golf Tournament Director Scott Allison said: “Everyone is very disappointed that the weather made it impossible to play the second qualifying round.

“We are very grateful to the green staff for their fantastic work, which meant we could play the first round, but in the end the heavy rain beat us. The forecast for the next couple of days is much better and we look forward to good golf in kinder conditions.”

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