Maguire and Meadow have work to do at Evian Championship

Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow have work to do to make the weekend action at the Evian Championship in France.

Maguire carded a one-over par 72 in Evians-les-Bains to sit eight shots off the first round lead.

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That is two shots better off than compatriot Meadow who sits on three-over par, with the projected cut line at level par.

Maguire endured a challenging start, with two bogeys and a double bogey in her opening five holes, but an improved back nine saw her home for 72.

Meadow also took time to find her rhythm, dropping shots in her opening two holes before another bogey at 6. Level par for the back nine, she will start the second round tied for 103rd place.

Patty Tavatanakit, Gemma Dryburgh and Ingrid Lindblad each carded a 7-under-par 64 on Thursday to set the pace at the top of the leaderboard.

Each member of that trio recorded a bogey-free round. Tavatanakit and Dryburgh each had five birdies on the back nine, while Lindblad of Sweden started on the 10th and had five on the front nine.

"Yeah, I would say it's a pretty simple round of golf," said Lindblad, 24, a former world amateur champion who turned professional in June.

"I think missed two fairways, missed two greens, so was just in it the whole round. Was just trying to hit the targets that we been talking about."

Additional reporting: Reuters