Katherine O’Connor came closest of any player to defeating the eventual winner in the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship at Royal St Davids.

The 19-year-old Tadmarton Heath member lost out to Spain’s Azahara Munoz at the second extra hole in their first-round clash, having already pulled out the stops to qualify.

O’Connor was two up with two holes to play against Munoz, who was playing her last tournament before turning professional, but couldn’t quite hold on.

Second seed Munoz went on to defeat compatriot Carlotta Ciganda in the final – and closed out all her subsequent matches inside 18 holes.

Earlier, O’Connor, a plus one handicapper who is on a golf scholarship at the University of Wales, carded rounds of 78 and 76 for an eight-over-par total in the strokeplay qualifying event.

That put her into a play-off with eight others for the last six places and a par on the first and a birdie on the second secured her place in the matchplay draw.

Oxfordshire's other representatives, Tilly Holder (Woburn) and Jane Binning (Frilford Heath), finished on 11 and 14 over par respectively in qualifying, so failed to reach the matchplay stages.

Two Oxfordshire course records were broken within the space of six days as players made the most of good conditions.

Firstly, Mark Booth (Whittlebury Park) improved his own mark of 63 by shooting an eight-under par 62 in Oxford City’s Southfield Pro-Am.

His effort was particularly impressive as it came after the ninth hole had been lengthened by 50 yards.

Six days later, Booth maintained his form with a four-under-par 67 at the Chipping Norton Pro-Am.

This was, however, only enough for joint third as Paul Simpson, from Witney, shot a stunning ten-under-par 61 to take the title and a record.

Simpson, pro at West Berks, finished three shots ahead of second-placed Tom Fleming (Frilford Heath).

Lambourne’s Dave Stanton was joint third with Booth.