There was a special meaning attached to Florentyna Parker’s third career hole-in-one, recorded on the ninth hole of Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club during the first round of the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

After her opening round of three-under-par 69, officials informed her that her ace had triggered a £2000 donation to Alzheimer’s Research by Ricoh Europe, plus another £60 for her six birdies. Ricoh Europe is donating £10 for every birdie made during the championship, £20 per eagle and £2000 per hole-in-one.

Parker, who didn’t know about the championship initiative, said afterwards: “It’s great! We’ve actually been supporting the Alzheimer’s charity for a while because my grandmother was diagnosed with it. So it’s a great charity, and I’m pleased to have contributed in such a way.”

Parker used an 8-iron to ace the ninth hole, from 147 yards. She said the shot looked good all the way.

“I was 2-over par, and, you know, thinking just hit the green, because you’re not playing great. It was a quite a short hole, downwind, and my caddie said 8-iron. I wasn’t sure, 7 or 8, since the wind was strong. I hit my 8-iron, and I was like, phew, just get it on the green, and it was going in the direction of the pin, and bounced a few times and then it just disappeared. You can’t believe it really. It was amazing!”

After a tough start and then, making the turn in level par 35, Parker came home in three-under, with four birdies and a bogey on the back nine.

She added: “It basically gave me a second chance, and you don’t really get many of those in golf. So it was great, and then my putter started working and the birdie on 18 was a bonus.”

“It’s lovely being here. I played at Royal Birkdale, (my home course), two weeks ago. I thought I needed to practise links golf. It didn’t work for me last week, but I’m hoping it’s catching up with me now, and you put a lot of hard work into it, and then you have weeks where you just don’t see the effort you put in. And then this week, you know, I wasn’t really expecting much because I’m not playing overly great, but the last few holes I thought I hit some really nice iron shots, and I’m playing quite nicely off the tee. So that’s really useful around this course. It just all worked in my favour today.”

Read more about Ricoh Europe’s Printed Memories programme at ricohwomensbritishopen.com.