Chiara Noja. ASLI 2023/Oisin Keniry
Chiara Noja was back at the scene of her biggest triumph in her short career on Thursday as she kicked off her Aramco Saudi Ladies International mission at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
The Dubai-based youngster — who is preparing for her GCSEs in May — claimed the Aramco Team Series — Jeddah individual crown here in November, and had mixed feelings after shooting a first-round one-under 71 on Thursday, signing for four birdies with three bogeys on the Red Sea course.
“It was euphoric to return here,” the 16-year-old told Golf Digest Middle East after her round on Thursday. “Obviously this course is very close to my heart, I have played it a lot over the past few years, so it is really beautiful being back here.
“It has been really windy over the week, so we will see how we fair. This is a different tournament to the Aramco Team Series, so obviously I didn’t feel think the champion of this event — Lydia Ko and Georgia Hall are here. But it is really cool being back. The course is definitely playing different. The greens are quite sandy and the rough is higher, so you can get penalised quite a bit if you miss the fairways. That is going into this week and we are going to try to battle it out.”
It was a little bittersweet after signing for her 71, as she felt she left a lot of shots out on the course.
I was minus-one today,” Noja said. “I had a lot of good opportunities, which I just kinda managed to mess up [laughs]. My iron play wasn’t the best on my back-nine, so going into tomorrow I just need to make sure I am committing to things a bit better. I wasn’t trusting my swing out there, so I will maybe go hit a few balls before tomorrow and then we just need to get back out there and see how it goes. There were a couple of silly mistakes but apart from that it was pretty solid.”
Amid the calmest conditions we have seen at Royal Greens all week, Noja felt maybe it was a bit of a missed opportunity not to go lower as one of the early starters.
“The expected afternoon wind doesn’t look like it is coming today, and I have an afternoon tee time tomorrow, so the wind better behave!”
