Leona Maguire is five shots off the pace after the opening round of the JM Eagle Championship as she made a good start on her return to LPGA Tour action.
Maguire suffered a disappointing early exit at the LPGA Matchplay a fortnight ago but she was in fine form on Thursday as she mixed six birdies and a pair of bogeys in a four-under 68.
They say all good rounds start with a bogey and that was the case for the Cavan woman who dropped a shot on the tenth but roared to the turn with birdies on the 11th, 15th and 16th.
Her inward nine also began with a dropped shot, this time annoyingly on the par-5 first but she rallied with birdies on the third, sixth and seventh.
Maguire is in a share of 24th place behind Ashleigh Buhai and Yan Liu who both carded nine-under 63s to share the lead.
Liu birdied the final three holes in chilly conditions while Buhai had nine birdies in her bogey-free morning round.
“I got bogey and next hole I tell myself, `You have to be calm and you have to be confident and be brave. You can do it,′” Liu said. “Yeah, just talk with myself.”
Buhai, a 2022 Women’s Open winner was pleased to take advantage of some generous pin positions.
“The pins were in locations we could access them today as long as you use the slopes correctly,” Buhai said. “If you hit it into the right bowls you’ll get good results. Otherwise, you can short side yourself very easily.”
Madelene Sagstrom, coming off a victory two weeks ago in the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas, closed with a hole-on-one on the 120-yard ninth for her first competitive ace and the only one on the tour this season.
“It’s weird because I actually got to see it,” said Sagstrom, who played in the morning alongside top-ranked Nelly Korda and two-time defending champion Hannah Green. “That’s the best part. You get to see it go in.”
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