Five women fired rounds of 65 to take the first-round lead Thursday at the Evian Championship, the fourth of five LPGA majors on the season.
Americans Jennifer Kupcho and Andrea Lee, Australians Grace Kim and Gabriela Ruffels, and Leona Maguire of Ireland all share the lead at 6-under at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France.
A stroke back at 66 is Minjee Lee of Australia, who won the Women’s PGA Championship in June.
Two more strokes behind after rounds of 67 sits a group of nine that includes world No. 1 Nelly Korda, defending champion Ayake Furue of Japan and another native of Japan, Mao Saigo, who won the season’s first major at The Chevron Championship in April.
Kupcho, starting on the back nine, bogeyed No. 12 but that was the only stroke she dropped on the day. She followed with three birdies before the turn, then two more on her final nine before an eagle at No. 9 to finish the round.
“I started off a little bit rocky I would say. Kind of just a little bit out of sorts, swinging a little quick,” Kupcho said. “Kind of just settled down halfway through the back nine, my front nine, and kind of just got it together. Was hitting the ball into the green really well. So even missing some fairways I was able to recover.”
Ruffels called her bogey-free round “super solid.”
“Only missed two greens out there,” she said. “Ball striking was really good. Been working hard on that with my coach.
“And then the putting was good, too. I made some good long putts and then was pretty solid inside 10 feet as well. So, yeah, that added up to a pretty good score.”
Korda had a roller coaster of a round to start. She sandwiched birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 between bogeys on the first and fourth holes, then added four birdies the rest of the way.
She said she had aspects of her game to address.
“I didn’t drive it very well, especially with my driver, so I’m going to the range,” she said. “Going to FaceTime my coach, Jamie, and kind of figure out what was going on.
“I had two misses and that’s never good on a tight Evian golf course with the rough being pretty thick. Putting as the day went on progressively got better. … Around the greens was really good. I saved a couple up and downs especially with having to pitch out.
“Overall, couple parts of my game helped me and rescued me, and the other parts let me down. That’s golf. Just going to try and figure it out on the range.”
–Field Level Media
