Leona Maguire finds herself twelve shots off the pace already after the opening day of the Honda LPGA Thailand in Pattaya.
Maguire had been in good form heading into the Asian swing of the LPGA Tour but a two-over 74 has her languishing in 57th place as Akie Iwai leads by three shots on ten-under-par.
The Cavan star started well with a birdie on the 11th, her second, but a wretched run of a double bogey on 13 and bogey on 14 knocked her back and despite bouncing back with a birdie on 15 she couldn’t get anything going.
She could only par the par fives 18 and 1 before dropping shot on the 2nd. A birdie on 7 was cancelled out by a bogey on the 8th as she came home in 37.
Iwai meanwhile was in sensational form and owed her great score to a magnificent front nine where she turned in 29.
The Japanese golfer roared out of the traps with four straight birdies before closing out her opening half with three birdies in a row.
Iwai put together a superb finish to put clear daylight between herself and Solheim Cup star Maja Stark with birdies on 15, 16 and 18 for a brilliant round of 62.
Big names linger behind her however with Stark at seven-under and local hero Moriya Jutanugarn a shot further back.
Former world number one Jin Young Ko is on five-under alongside Angel Yin and Nanna Koerztz Madsen.
Scoring HERE
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