Leona Maguire and Jennifer Kupcho got off to a bright start in the foursomes at the Dow Championship in the LPGA Tour’s only team event.
Maguire and Kupcho, playing under the team name ‘Irish Goodbyes’ had an early bogey and then played bogey-free with four birdies over the final 16 holes to join the large group at three-under-par 67, one back of leaders Cassie Porter and Gemma Dryburgh
For an alternate-shot format that can be stressful, Maguire and Kupcho kept it simple. Both are rarely out of position and consistently good putters.
“Foursomes, it’s always a game of patience,” Maguire said. “Nice to hole quite a long one on 16. Had a nice one on three to bounce back after the bogey on two to get the round going.
“Other than that, it was pretty steady today.
“We don’t get too aggressive on attacking pins,” Kupcho said. “So we give ourselves lots of putts and kind of have our speed under control and kind of just make it easy on each other.”
Kupcho teamed with Lizette Salas to win the 2022 event.
The leaders Porter and Dryburgh dropped only one shot and finished with six straight pars for a one-shot lead over six teams, including Lexi Thompson and Meghan Kang, and Leona Maguire and Jennifer Kupcho.
The defending champions are Ruoning Yin and Jeeno Thitikul, both among the top five in the women’s world ranking. They were among those two shots behind at 68.
The format switches to fourballs on Friday, which yields lower taking the lowest score of each player.
Maguire and Kupcho get their second rounds underway at 1.20pm Irish time
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