Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Lauren Coughlin enjoyed a run of four birdies over six holes and emerged with the first-round lead at the CPKC Women’s Open on Thursday in Calgary.

Coughlin carded a 4-under-par 68 at Earl Grey Golf Club to establish a one-shot edge over Jennifer Kupcho, Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn and Australians Hannah Green and Minjee Lee.

Alison Lee, Gigi Stoll, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and South Koreans Haeran Ryu, Jenny Shin and Hye-Jin Choi are tied for sixth at 70.

Coughlin, 31, never finished in the top five in an LPGA Tour event until this year, when she did so in two majors. She tied for third at the Chevron Championship in April, then placed fourth at the Amundi Evian Championship earlier this month.

“Pretty much ever since Evian, I’ve been hitting the ball extremely well,” she said. “To keep it going even in an off week felt really good. Yeah, it’s just trying to be myself and have fun, and then see what I shoot.”

Coughlin began on the back nine and made nine consecutive pars. She birdied No. 1, then added birdies at Nos. 4, 5, 8 and 9, sandwiching her lone bogey at No. 6.

“It was a lot windier than I was expecting, so just had to stay super patient in the beginning,” Coughlin said. “Kind of started getting some putts dropping. Yeah, I mean, it was tough out there for sure, but I hit a lot of really good shots and a lot of good putts.”

Green, Minjee Lee and Kupcho each had four birdies and one bogey.

Jutanugarn logged consecutive birdies at Nos. 14, 15 and 16, then gave back two strokes with bogeys at Nos. 17 and 18. Her front nine consisted of seven pars and two birdies.

Jutanugarn is attempting to repeat her feat of 2016, when she won the tournament in Calgary.

“I (haven’t had) a good year yet, like starting my first tournament until this event,” she said. “And when I play the practice round Tuesday and play the pro-am on Wednesday, I feel like this course is so hard. Like the rough is so long. The fairway is so small. (Greens are) so firm.

“So today just play (with) no expectation because, like, it’s really windy when we start. Especially, like, the first 12 holes (are) so hard. I think when I play without expectations, … everything starts to get better.”

Megan Khang, who won the event last year when it was held in Vancouver, is tied for 62nd after shooting a 74.

–Field Level Media