SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Nelly Korda birdied her last gap for a 3-under 69 to take the early lead within the first spherical of the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship on Thursday.
Korda began on the again 9 and the No. 1 participant on the earth made 4 birdies in her first 5 holes. However elements of the morning had been a scramble for Korda because the Douglass fir, crimson cedar and hemlock bushes of Sahalee performed their function in making it a problem. A double bogey on the par-4 fourth gap dropped her again to 2 beneath.
“In case you attempt to be aggressive once you’ve hit it off line, it simply bites you within the butt,” Korda stated. “General I feel I performed fairly nicely. I took my possibilities the place I may and I performed secure the vast majority of the spherical.”
Korda dropped a 15-foot putt on the par-3 ninth gap to take a one-shot benefit.
Seven gamers had been one shot again, together with Allisen Corpuz, Celine Boutier, Charley Hull and Leona Maguire. Maguire led this event after the third spherical final 12 months at Baltusrol however shot 74 on the ultimate day and completed 4 pictures again of the winner, Ruoning Yin.
Enjoying with Korda, Yin rebounded from a tough begin and shot 33 on her second 9 to shoot 71.
“Fortunately hit it fairly straight as we speak. Hit numerous fairways and greens. However it does really feel like a course the place when you’re out of place it is powerful to get again on observe,” stated Corpuz, who has an outdoor likelihood of constructing the Olympics for america with a robust end this week.
The third main of the 12 months on the LPGA Tour returned to Sahalee, which beforehand hosted in 2016.
And Korda obtained off to a much better begin than her final main, when she shot 80 within the opening spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open three weeks in the past.
Korda early run of birdies included three straight between Nos. 13-15 and she or he and went out in 33. She moved to 4 beneath after a birdie on the third gap – her twelfth of the day – however dropped two pictures on the fourth. Her tee shot on the 398-yard gap ended up tucked behind a tree and after pitching out, her third shot did not clear a ridge and rolled again towards the entrance of the inexperienced.
Korda was in a position to scramble out of hassle just a few instances, together with the par-5 second gap when she pulled a fairway wooden right into a cluster of bushes left the inexperienced and salvaged par.
“This whole golf course is so demanding. I needed to make some fairly good up-and-downs,” Korda stated.
The afternoon wave included Lexi Thompson; Lilia Vu, who gained final week in her return from a again harm; Brooke Henderson, the 2016 winner at Sahalee; and Yuka Saso, the U.S. Ladies’s Open winner.
