Both Leona Maguire and Lauren Walsh find themselves outside the provisional cutline after the opening round of the LPGA’s Fortinet Founders Cup at Sharon Heights Golf Club in California.
Maguire was first of the two Irish women to get underway, but after parring her opening hole, a disastrous quadruple bogey on the par-4 second gave her an early mountain to climb. She recovered to birdie two of the following seven and turn at +2, but inconsistent play on the back side saw her birdie three and bogey three to finish the day at two-over-par.
With the greens firming up in the afternoon, Walsh was among the late starters off the 10th tee and parred each of her first 11 holes before moving into red figures with a birdie on three.
Back-to-back bogeys followed, but a birdie on the par-3 eighth got her back to level-par. Her day ended in disappointment, however, with a double bogey on the par-4 closing hole dropping her into a share of 89th alongside Maguire, and at two shots outside the provisional cut mark, they’ll both need to shoot rounds in the 60s on day two to be confident of earning weekend tee times.
At the head of affairs, Hyo Joo Kim capped off a flawless round by holing out for eagle on the par-5 18th hole for a nine-under 63 that gave her a two-shot lead.
Kim was more impressed with keeping bogeys off her card on the tree-lined course than she was with the eagle on the final hole.
“I am just so satisfied I had no bogeys,” Kim said. “I had some mistakes in the beginning, but I was able to save them. I ended with an eagle, so I ended pretty happily.”
As for that eagle?
“I couldn’t see the hole from where I was, but people started cheering and then I heard a “Yeah!” So I figured it went in,” Kim said.
LPGA rookie Dongeun Lee also had an eagle on the par-5 closing hole, posting a 65. Polly Mack of Germany overcame a double bogey on the par-5 10th on her way to a 66, tied with Jim Hee Im.
Mack missed only two fairways and three greens and let her length and her wedges do the work in making eight birdies to offset the double bogey.
“Hit a lot of fairways and greens and left myself with a lot of birdie chances. Had a lot of wedges into greens, and that’s what I’ve been working on the most this offseason,” said Mack, who finished her college career at Alabama. “It’s good to see that coming into play and really coming along and seeing that progress. Just had a lot of short birdie putts. Used most of them to my advantage.”
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