Both Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire were left to rue tough finishes and will need to turn their fortunes around in the second round of the Palos Verdes Championship to make the cut after struggling on day one in California.
Meadow dropped three shots in her final four holes to card a two-over 73 at Palos Verdes Golf Club, with Maguire one shot further back after day one having also dropped three shots in her last five holes on her way to a 74.
With the cut line currently sitting at level-par, both will need to see significant improvement on Friday in order to stick around for the weekend, with both looking to avoid consecutive missed cuts after missing out at last week’s DIO Implant LA Open.
Meadow in particular will be frustrated that she couldn’t maintain a promising start as birdies at the fourth and seventh saw her reach two-under, but a bogey at the ninth dropped her back to one-under at the turn before a costly finish.
A double-bogey at the par-four 15th took her over-par for the first time and then a bogey at the par-three 17th dropped her back another shot, leaving her in need of a big second round.
The same applies to Maguire, who hit just nine fairways and missed seven greens on her way to a three-over 74 that leaves her scrambling to make the cut as well.
The Cavan woman, who started on the 10th, cancelled out a bogey at her opening hole with a birdie at the 11th, with a bogey at the 15th mitigated shortly after the turn as she birdied the par-four second.
However, like Meadow, Maguire would not finish her round positively as she dropped back-to-back shots at the fifth and sixth, which was compounded by another at the ninth to leave her three off the cut line.
Australia’s Minjee Lee leads after the opening round as she carded eight birdies – five of which came on her back nine – in a bogey-free eight-under 63 to lead by one from World No.1 Jin Young Ko after the first day.
“The first nine, I mean, we didn’t have that much wind so it was nice just to play without the wind; then the back nine picked up a little bit. So regardless of that, the front nine we have a lot of like wedges into the holes, so I just took advantage of that,” said Lee.
Ko also had eight birdies but added one bogey to sit a shot back after a 64, with England’s Charley Hull alongside Moriya Jutanugarn and Jennifer Chang a shot further back at six-under after all three signed for 65s.
- Full scoring HERE
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