Meadow three back as Maguire starts solidly in title defence

Ronan MacNamara
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Stephanie Meadow (Photo by Yoshimasa Nakano/Getty Images)

Ronan MacNamara

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Stephanie Meadow and Leona Maguire have both made solid starts to the LPGA Drive On Championship in Arizona.

Meadow is just three shots adrift of leaders Alison Lee, Jenny Shin and Gaby Lopez after a blemish free 68 while Maguire is five back as she got her title defence underway with a 70.

Meadow was getting her 2023 campaign underway and she opened with an extremely solid four birdies and fourteen pars to share sixteenth place on four-under-par, just a shot outside the top ten.

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The Jordanstown native picked up birdies on the second, seventh, 13th and 18th.

Maguire carded three birdies with her only bogey coming on the par-3 4th. The Cavan star birdied the second, sixth and 11th before closing with seven successive pars to lie on two-under-par.

Lee, Shin and Lopez are tied together on seven-under after rounds of 65.

Lee, a 28-year-old American looking for her first tour win, birdied four of her first five holes. And, after a bogey at 16, her seventh hole, she strung together a four straight birdies and five in the next six holes to reach 8 under at Superstition Mountain Golf Club before a bogey on her final hole dropped her into a three-way tie for the top spot of a crowded leaderboard.

Shin, a 30-year-old from South Korea looking for her first win since 2016, posted seven birdies from the 8th through to 18 to earn a share of the lead in the tour’s first full-field event of the season.

Lopez had a bogey-free round. The 29-year-old Mexican started on the back nine and made the turn at 4-under par before adding three birdies on the front side to tie for the lead.

Lopez, a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour, played the course for the first time in five years and said her focus this year is to take a lighter approach to her season and play less to mind her body.

“I’m going to take it lighter this year,” she said. “Not going to play as many tournaments as I’ve done before, so going to take it a little easier on my body. Trying to enjoy a little bit more every single day out there.”

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