Keighley the tiny amateur hits big blow for tradition

The first thing Alex Keighley did after walking off the 18th green was to hug her granny. There were also autographs to sign. Keighley had just completed a remarkable two-under-par 70 in the first round of the Women's British Open.

"That was fantastic," she said. "I loved every minute of it. I even enjoyed the double-bogey." This is not what a professional usually says. But then Keighley is not a professional. She is a 22-year-old amateur from Halifax, who is one of only three players to have come through two rounds of qualifying to play here. In the first of them she had to survive a play-off to progress.

Not to be sizeist about it, but she is tiny. At 4ft 11in, she is an inch shorter than even Alison Nicholas, the former British and US Open champion. Golfers of both sexes may be getting bigger, but Keighley follows in an honourable tradition - see Ian Woosnam - that proves a sweet swing of whatever dimensions can propel the ball the requisite distances.

"Good timing, I guess," Keighley said, when asked from where she gets her length. "And I've got quite big legs as well."

Before yesterday her best achievement was playing for England and her best day was beating Rebecca Hudson and Emma Duggleby, two Great Britain players, to win the first of two successive Yorkshire Amateur titles in 2001. She intends to turn professional at the end of the year and will do her PGA training with the idea of becoming a coach as much as playing on the European Tour, where employment is hardly full-time.

Keighley finished only three behind the leaders, the American Wendy Ward and Karrie Webb, the Australian defending champion. Until Karen Stupples, of Kent, came in late in the day with a 69, Keighley had the honour of being the leading British player. Laura Davies, four over after five, had a 75.

Annika Sorenstam, the world No 1 who has never won this championship, had a 68 to lie just a stroke off the lead. Both Ward and Webb had the benefit of being out early in the morning. With a poor forecast, it was not as much a benefit as might have been expected as the conditions did not deteriorate much.

Sorenstam produced five birdies from the ninth with her usual brand of steady, accurate golf - apart from the 15th, where she drove into a bunker, put her third deep in the rough and did well to make a bogey.

"I felt surprisingly calm and was very patient today," said the Swede. Sorenstam admits to having put too much pressure on herself at past majors, but that has changed after her Colonial appearance alongside the men.

"Links golf is definitely growing on me," she added. "I didn't appreciate it at first but now I think it is a privilege to play courses like these. This is not about power. It's about putting the ball in the right places and staying out of the bunkers."

At the 17th, where it is vital to avoid the many traps, she hit two seven-woods to the green, instead of taking a driver off the tee. "I can't think of a single course in America where you would do that," Sorenstam said.

* Nick Dougherty compiled a first-round 67 to claim a share of the lead in the Scandinavian Masters in Malmo yesterday. The 21-year-old joined the former Ryder Cup players Andrew Coltart and David Gilford, who are one ahead of the South Korean teenager Kevin Na, Stephen Scahill of New Zealand, and the Dutchman Maarten Lafeber