th<\/sup> hole. After carding a pair of bogeys in the middle of her round, she recovered a stroke at the third and then finished with four birdies in her last five holes to lay down the marker.<\/p>\n\u201cA birdie-birdie finish always feels good,\u201d said the Solheim Cup star, who won the tournament at the same venue in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy. I love being in Spain. I love Sitges and it is just a comfortable atmosphere. I have my family here, so once I\u2019m done, I don\u2019t really think much about golf. I can have a good time and eat good food and I enjoy that. It\u2019s always nice to come back to Europe, play in Spain and have a good time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Karlsson also started from the 11th<\/sup> and quickly eagled the 12th<\/sup>, where she hit her driver from the tee and then used a hybrid to hit her ball to within two metres of the flag before rolling in the putt. The Swede bogeyed the 15th<\/sup>, but then birdied the 18th<\/sup>.<\/p>\nShe holed long birdie putts on the second and third holes, from 15 and 20 metres respectively, before picking up further shots at the fourth, sixth and eighth holes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI holed a lot of long putts today,\u201d said Karlsson, who opened last week\u2019s Amundi German Masters with a 63 and held the lead for three rounds, before dropping shots at the last two holes to lose by a stroke to Maja Stark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice feeling to know that I can score low. I\u2019ve been a little disappointed for the last couple of days, but I\u2019ve tried to forget that and focus on this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Ciganda, she is enjoying the special atmosphere at the Estrella Damm Ladies Open, which boasts fabulous sea views across the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this place. It\u2019s beautiful and one of my favourite spots on the road. You can go down to the beach or to the pool and take a swim. It feels a little bit like a vacation. You can rest and go out and have dinner and it\u2019s great weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
The six other players lying in a share of third place are Alice Hewson, Anne-Lise Caudal, Moa Folke, Elin Arvidsson, Georgina Blackman and Michele Thomson. The defending champion, Maja Stark, opened with a two-under-par 70 and currently shares 18th<\/sup> place, five shots off the pace.<\/p>\nGet your entrance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlota Ciganda and Jessica Karlsson set the pace with a pair of seven-under-par 65s on the opening day of the Estrella Damm Ladies Open presented by Catalunya in Sitges. Both players made strong starts in hot and breezy conditions at Club de Golf Terramar to lead by three strokes over six other players. Ciganda, from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[]},"categories":[45,893,864,881],"tags":[921,2466,1984,831,2996,2299,2997,2066,2323,1288,2894],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t