Round one of the Kroger Queen City Championship served up plenty of action and a tightly packed leaderboard as South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai takes the early lead by a single stroke on seven-under-par. She sits one clear of Jeeno Thitkul of Thailand and China’s Yan Liu while a group of eight including Nelly Korda and Ireland’s Leona Maguire lurk one further back on five-under-par.
Maguire seemed to rediscover a bit of form on day one in Maineville, having failed to break 70 on Tour since June at the Meijer LPGA Classic. She was a woman on a mission as she began her week with a run of five consecutive pars to start, before lighting up with an eagle on the par-five sixth hole. She backed this up with a birdie [2] on her next hole. Two pars followed to turn on three-under, before a run of three more birdies in four holes from the 10th. Her only dropped shot of day one came on the par-3 12th and she went on another run of five pars to close out her round on five under after her 67. She will be part of the afternoon swing on Friday, hitting the course from the 10th tee at 13.31 local time, for her second assault on River’s Bend.
“Solheim is always one of my favorite weeks. It was a lot of fun with the team,” said Maguire. “There hasn’t been a lot of the fun in my golf this summer it seems like, so it was nice to have that last week, so bring more of that into the back end of the season.
“Trying to be a bit kinder to myself and enjoy my golf a little bit more. Build off the momentum of last week. The last couple of Solheims, I’ve played five matches, been exhausted after the Solheim, so nice to be a little bit fresher this time round.”
“I’m getting better. It’s hard,” said Maguire when asked about giving herself grace. “Nobody has higher standards for myself than I do. You put in an awful lot of work, and when the results don’t show, it is frustrating. I know I have the game to do it. It’s just a case of believing in myself a little bit more. Nice to see some results lately.”
Overnight leader Buhai is a two-time winner and major champion on Tour having tasted victory at the ’22 Women’s Open so she knows how to close out a tournament, although still early days. She will have her work cut out to retain her lead heading into the weekend with the quality of the chasing pack such as Maguire and World Number One Nelly Korda breathing down her neck.
“My goal going into this week was just to – I know it sounds weird – but I can hit so many different shots, and I see so many different shots. My goal this week was to just hit the simplest shot,” Buhai said following her round. “For me, that’s just a little drop-off fade unless the other one is really required, and I have to stand up and hit a draw or hit a big fade. I think that’s what I did well today, and it showed that when I do that, then I give myself maybe a few more looks than what I have been doing at birdie.”
The leader takes to TPC River’s Bend for her second round from the 10th shortly after Maguire’s group at 13.42 local time. She is part of an eye-catching three-ball with England’s Georgia hall and Amy Yang from Korea. Buhai will look for more of the same as she looks to tighten her grip on this year’s Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio.
Leave a comment