Ponte on course

AIMEE PONTE is well placed to qualify for the match-play stages of the Girls' British Open Amateur Championship.

The 17-year-old Guernsey starlet, pictured, shot an opening round of 79, five-over-par, yesterday at Fairhaven Golf Club in Lytham St Annes and is currently in a tie for 34th in a field of 144 players from all over the Continent and as far away as South Africa and China.

Ponte got off to a solid start on the 6,395-yard course and was only one-over-par at the turn, the one blip being a bogey at the sixth.

In tough, windy conditions, she found the going harder on the back nine with further bogeys coming on the 11th, 12th and 14th holes and a double on the 15th.