By Tony Webeck

Queensland’s Justice Bosio is just one stroke off the lead after the first round of stroke play in the US Girls’ Junior Championship at The Club at Olde Stone in Kentucky.

Runner-up to New Zealand’s Fiona Xu in the Australian Women’s Amateur in April, Bosio had four birdies in her final six holes to post four-under 69, one of four players in a tie for second one shot back of Canadian Lauren Zaretsky (68).

Fresh off a quarter-final showing in last week’s North & South Women’s Amateur at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, Bosio was the last player to register on Sunday and only got in one practice round. It didn’t seem to matter as she posted six birdies against two bogeys.

From Caboolture on the Sunshine Coast, Bosio is coached by Richard Woodhouse on the Gold Coast and is looking to become the second Australian to win this championship, a decade after Minjee Lee triumphed at Lake Merced Golf Club.

This is Bosio’s second trip to the United States this year having also finished runner-up at the Uniqlo/Adam Scott Junior Championship in February.

She seemed destined to join Jeffrey Guan as Aussie winners in the inaugural event hosted by the 2013 Masters champion but dropped six shots in her final six holes to finish two back in second spot.

Bosio was also second – this time to WA’s Kirsten Rudgeley – at the Avondale Amateur.

She will enter the second round tied with 15-year-old Yana Wilson of Nevada, Hsin Tai Lin, 16, of Chinese Taipei and 17-year-old Texan Farah O’Keefe.

Bosio is the sole Australian in the field.

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