Meadow and Maguire 13 off pace in Olympic golf

Stephanie Meadow’s hopes of contending for a medal in the Olympic women’s golf tournament appear remote after a six-over-par 78 left her 11 off the early pace on day one.

The Team Ireland golfer went out in 41 shots after bogeys at the second, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth.

The Jordanstown woman dropped further shots at the 10th and 12th before her only birdie of the day at Le Golf National came at the closing par-five 18th.

Meadow’s Ireland team-mate Leona Maguire suffered a bad start by double bogeying the opening hole and things went from bad to worse as dropped shots at the seventh and eighth were followed by a triple bogey eight at the ninth before she joined her team-mate on six over by picking up a birdie at the 12th.

Despite not “having my best stuff” on day one, Meadow described her the experience of playing at her third Olympics as “fantastic”.

“Being in the first group there were tons of French out there, some Belgians and quite a few Irish were behind me,” said the county Antrim woman.

“It was great to have the support behind me and really for women’s golf to play in front of crowds like that.”

Home player Celine Boutier, a Solheim Cup team-mate of Maguire, was the early leader after moving to five under after 14 which left her two shots ahead of playing partner USA’s Lilia Vu.

More than halfway through round one, only four players were behind Meadow and Maguire who included Great Britain’s Charley Hull who was in third-last spot after carding an 81.