Home hope Maha Haddioui said that a sleepless night was far from the ideal preparation for the first round of the Lalla Meryem Cup and hopes to bounce back from an opening four-over-par 76 to get into the mix this weekend.
“I didn’t sleep at all well last night. I don’t know why, I was getting horrible migraines and I never get migraines. I couldn’t fall asleep and the more you try, the wider awake you are and you see the clock ticking. That didn’t help today,” said the Moroccan Olympian, from Casablanca.
“It’s not a nice thing to happen before your home event and my goal this morning was not to get mad about it. Usually I put my head down and I sleep. I never struggle to sleep. So having the migraines and all this happening was very frustrating.”
Maha birdied the 12th and dropped shots at 15 and 16 for a first nine total of one-over 37. She then made bogeys on holes four, five, seven and eight before ending with her second birdie of the day on the par-four ninth hole.
She said: “I was starting to feel dizzy towards the end. I’m glad I finished well, but it was not a nice day. I started off quite well and then started getting tired and I didn’t putt well at all. I was doubting the lines a lot and towards the end it was the driving and I couldn’t hit the fairway.”
Despite that, she remains positive that she can make the cut. “It’s a course I like and there are birdie opportunities out there, so I need to get some rest and play better tomorrow and shoot under par,” she said, ahead of her afternoon tee time on Friday.
