Joanna Klatten grabbed seven birdies in a six-under 65 on Thursday to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the LPGA Kingsmill Championship.
Klatten, who has missed five cuts and has not finished better than a tie for 30th this season, jump-started her round with four birdies in a row starting at the third and finished the day one stroke in front of Pat Hurst, Alison Lee and Morgan Pressel.
“Well, it’s nice because I haven’t had a very good stretch lately,” Klatten said. “I mean, this is one of my favorite courses all year. I feel very comfortable here. It suits my eye really well. I think you have an advantage if you’re among the long hitters.”
Photo: AFP
France’s Perrine Delacour was among a quartet of players sharing fifth place on four-under 67, where she was joined by Americans Paula Creamer and Jacqui Concolino, as well as South Korea’s Ryu So-yeon.
Taiwan’s Min Lee shot a one-over 72 along with Kaohsiung-born Candie Kung. Former world No. 1 Yani Tseng was three shots further back after a 75 and fellow Taiwanese Hsu Wei-ling carded a disappointing 77.
Defending champion Lizette Salas struggled to a three-over 74 which left her tied for 93rd place.
US Women’s Open champion Michelle Wie withdrew with a hip injury after shooting an opening 78.
Klatten acknowledged that she had luck on her side on Thursday — including three monster putts between 30 and 50 feet.
The longest of those was at the par-three fifth, where she holed out from in front of the green for a third straight birdie.
“I had good breaks and it feels really good,” she said. “Lately, it felt the other way around, but I knew that it always evens out. Today, it definitely did.”
Pressel’s round was highlighted by a near-ace on the 17th. She said swing changes that she is gradually solidifying are giving her more birdie chances.
“I just played solid,” Pressel said. “I didn’t really make a whole ton of mistakes today and the ones I did I recovered from nicely with good up and downs, a couple good 10-footers for par, and was able to convert the birdie opportunities that I did have.”
Creamer got off to a hot start with birdies at five of her first seven holes.
She arrived at 18 with a chance to tie Klatten for the lead, but bogeyed to fall back.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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