Buenos Aires, Argentina (20 October) – The USA forged a four-stroke lead over Argentina and France with a record-setting 8-under-par 136 in the first round of the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.

USA Curtis Cup teammates Jessica Korda, 17, and Cydney Clanton, 21, both shot 4-under-par 68 at the par-72 Olivos Golf Club to combine for a the lowest first-round in the history of the championship. The previous low first-round score was 137 by Canada in 2004 and Japan and Sweden in 2008.

The USA celebrates. Jessica Korda (l) high fives Cydney Clanton after each posted a 68 in the first round of the Women's World Amateur Team Championship at Olivos Golf Club. (John Mummert/IGF)

"I am exceedingly proud of the way these young women played,” said USA captain Roberta Bolduc. “They stayed patient and played brilliantly. I am ordering three more rounds like that.”

Also playing at Olivos Golf Club, France was bolstered by the day’s low round, a 5-under-par 67 by Alexandra Bonetti and shared second-place with Argentina at 4-under-par 140.

The 68 from Korda, the 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up, was bogey free. Clanton, a collegiate All-American at Auburn University, fired five birdies against one bogey .The third member of the USA team, 2010 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Danielle Kang, shot 70 on her 18th birthday. Although her score did not count, it matched the lowest non-counting score in championship history.

Alexandra Bonetti of France, who shot the day's lowest round (67), blasts from the bunker. (John Mummert/IGF)

"We wanted to be in the reds (numbers),” Kang said.  To which Korda echoed: “Under par counts.”

The USA, which last won the competition for the Espirito Santo Trophy in 1998 in Chile, took advantage of optimum scoring conditions in the day’s first three starting times with Argentina and Portugal.

"They are great players with great swings,” captain Federico McNeil of Argentina  USA. There is no par 5 for them. Both Korda and Clanton birdied three of the four par 5s at Olivos Golf Club.

Argentina posted a pair of 2-under-par 70s from Manuela Carbajo Re and Victoria Tanco, who was named the American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year.

"We have three players playing at a very good level,” McNeil said. “We need a find a great week on the greens.”

Chinese Taipei , Germany, South Africa and Spain tied for fourth place at 2-under-par 142. Mexico was eighth at 1-under-par 143, followed by Ireland, Canada, Israel, and the Philippines in ninth position at even-par 144. Defending champion Sweden was tied for 16th place at 146.

For complete results, visit www.internationalgolffederation.org and click on the Golfstat icon.

Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises national governing bodies of golf in more than 120 countries, the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship is a biennial international amateur competition, which is rotated among three geographic zones:  Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe-Africa. This year the event is hosted by the Asociacion Argentina de Golf.  The teams play for the Espirito Santo Trophy.

Each team has two or three players and plays 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores by players from each team constitutes the team score for the round.  The four-day (72 holes) total is the team’s score for the championship.

Compiled by Pete Kowalski, IGF Media Officer