Leona Maguire shot a solid yet unspectacular one-under-par 70 to sit in a tie for 24th place at The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America in Texas.
Maguire carded three birdies and two bogeys in her round which has the Cavan woman six shots back of Hyo Joo Kim who sits in fifth on the Race to CME Globe order of merit, after the South Korean golfer shot a seven-under-par 64 for a two shot lead.
Kim started with a bogey on her second hole of the day, the 11th but she ignited her round with four birdies in a row from the 13th to the 16th holes and followed that with four more birdies on the front nine, her back nine to sit on top of the leaderboard overnight, two shots clear of Yu-Sang Hou, Sofia Garcia and Azahara Munoz.
Munoz is in the midst of a challenging season during which the Spaniard has recorded only a single top 10 but all aspects of her game began working in unison at The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America. Munoz missed only one fairway and needed a mere 22 putts en route to an opening round 5-under-par 66 at Old American Golf Club.
“I just haven’t been able to put both things together, like ball striking and putting together,” Munoz told Golf Channel after her round. “Today was really nice. Didn’t get myself in trouble.”
While Munoz hit just half her greens on Thursday, she said most of her approach shots left her still with a putter in hand from just off the putting surface. Those shots that wound up just slightly further off the green she opted to chip, and found a bit of luck not once, but twice when she holed out on Nos. 6 and 7.
“When I miss I miss in the right places, and when I had my chances I made them,” Munoz said about her short game. “That was really good.”
Leona gets her second round underway at 12.59pm local time, 6.59pm Irish time.
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