Sara Byrne faces a battle to make the weekend in Connecticut after a slow start at the Epson Tour’s Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship.
The Cork native carded three bogeys and two birdies in her one-over-par 73, which leaves her on the cut mark and nine shots off the leader Gina Kim, who matched the 18-hole tournament record.
Kim had a number to chase by the time she teed off in the afternoon and started off strong with three consecutive birdies on holes one, two, and three. Kim continued the birdie string, rounding out her front nine with a six-under 30.
“Obviously, with it being a four-day event, there’s a legitimate moving day,” said Kim. “So I don’t think my game plan is going to change. I think just having that experience from the LPGA Tour for the past few years, I think it’s prepped me for a tournament like this. So, I’m feeling good. I’m feeling ready.”
Kim headed into her second nine, lipping out birdie putts on 10 and 11, but got settled and made birdies on 12, 14, and 17. The North Carolina native missed out on a bogey-free round by one, with a bogey on 18 to card her eight-under-par 64.
“My putter got really hot at the beginning, so it’s been nice to have the ball bounce the right way, fall into the cup a few more times than what would normally happen. So I felt pretty confident, and I didn’t know what the course record was, but it’s cool to hear that I was tied with it,” Kim added.
Britney Yada started the morning wave with a birdie on the first hole and kept a steady pace throughout her round, making the turn with a 3-under 33. Two more birdies had the 33-year-old post a four-under 68 to find herself near the top of the leaderboard early in the day. Jiyue Wu had a quiet and steady bogey-free round in the afternoon, making birdies on 8, 11, 12, and 14 to post a four-under 68 to find herself in a share of second with Yada.
Samantha Wager, Sarah White, and Laetitia Beck all turned in rounds of 69 to sit one shot out of second place heading into round two. Byrne gets her second round underway at 12.15 pm Irish time in the first group out.
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