Leona Maguire and Lauren Walsh find themselves straddling opposite sides of the cutline after the opening round of the LPGA’s Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati.
Both Irish women featured in the early wave on a tough day one at Maketewah Country Club and found birdies hard to come by. Maguire made just one and it came on her final hole after bogeys on six and nine got her to the final tee at +2.
The par-3 birdie on the last got her back to +1 and into a tie for 50th in a round where she struggled for consistency throughout the bag, hitting just eight of 14 fairways, 13 of 18 greens and took 32 putts.
Walsh also made just the one birdie, which came on the sixth and got her back to level-par after an early bogey, but she dropped further shots on nine and 16 and will need to improve her approach play in particular if she’s to make it back-to-back weekend appearances for the first time in her rookie LPGA season having hit just nine greens in regulation in round one.
With conditions making low scoring tough, they are still very much in the mix if they can get something going in round two, however, with the leading trio all sitting at four-under.
Chella Choi bogeyed her final two holes and blemished an otherwise flawless round, to fall into a three-way share of the lead with Rio Takeda and Ina Yoon.
Nelly Korda had 15 pars in her round of one-under 69 in her bid to win a third straight tournament. Korda won The Chevron Championship for her third major and the following week in Mexico before taking off last week.
Jeeno Thitikul, who won last week in the Mizuho Americas Open, also had a 69. It was the same score as Korda achieved far differently.
Korda had two birdies against one bogey at Maketewah Country Club, in its first year hosting the LPGA Tour event. Thitikul had only five pars — seven birdies and six bogeys.
Choi was at 6 under until her foot slipped on a shot at No. 8, leading to her first bogey. She failed to get up-and-down from a bunker on the long par-3 ninth, her final hole.
“Super hard golf course,” Choi said. “Fairways very narrow and the green is … green in not flag, like so many bumps here.”
Jin Young Ko and Lilia Vu, both with multiple majors in their careers, were at 67. Another shot behind were Lydia Ko and Charley Hull.
Lydia Ko was in a group with Korda and Thitikul, the Nos. 1 and 2 players in the women’s world ranking.
“Somebody asked me who I was playing and I was like, ‘I’m playing with 1 and 2, and they’re almost like 1 and 1,'” Ko said. “I was thinking some part in my back nine how impressive they’ve played these last few years. I think that’s the most impressive thing.”
“Jeeno, she’s won a couple times, but she also has put herself in contention a lot in the times she didn’t win,” she added. “Nelly hasn’t finished worse than second place this year. So it was cool to be out there with them.”
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