Koahsiung-born US player Candie Kung on Thursday shot a seven-under-par 65 to tie for second place in the opening round of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, two shots behind South Korea’s So Yeon-ryu, who led the field with a tournament-record nine-under 63.
Kung opened her afternoon round with bogeys on 10 and 11, then birdied the next two and made seven more in a nine-hole stretch from the 17th to the seventh.
“Two three-putts, hello, what a start,” Kung said. “Putting let me down the first two holes and then picked me right up on the last 16 holes. I made a lot of long putts and hit 18 greens today. This course is hard to hit fairways and greens, and I was able to keep it in play and hit all the greens.”
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Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling was four strokes back on 69, carding an impressive three-under-par to tie for 10th with five other players.
Chang Ya-chun and Min Lee were further down the leaderboard, but both Taiwanese women still finished the round under-par on one-under 71.
Lin Tzu-chi shot an even-par 72, while Cheng Ssu-chia and Hou Yu-chiang were at one-over-par 73.
The remaining 14 Taiwanese competitors — Hung Jo-hua, Yeh Hsin-ning, Lin Tze-han, Hou Yu-sang, Yani Tseng, Chien Pei-yun, Chen Yu-ju, Chen I-wen, Kuo Ai-chen, Chang Hsuan-ping, Yu Han-Hsuan, Shih Huei-ju, Chen Meng-chu and Liang Yi-ling — were all sitting below the projected cut line.
Playing in the first group of the day off the 10th tee, So had seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch on the back nine and added two more on the front nine at Lake Merced.
“I was kind of lucky to tee it off really early,” So said. “I had a really fresh green, no wind. Also San Francisco is really cold in the morning, but this morning it was just perfect temperature. I think today just everything was just great. My tee shot was great. I only missed one green today. I shot 17 greens. Putting was really good.”
Japan’s Haru Nomura, who was tied with Kung, had eight birdies and a bogey. She won the Australian Women’s Open in February for her first LPGA Tour title.
“Winning in Australia gave me a lot of confidence,” Nomura said. “I still remember how I shot and my putting when I won. So If I play same way I feel I can win again here soon.”
China’s Xi Yulin and the Netherlands’ Christel Boeljon shot 67, and two-time defending champion Lydia Ko was at 68 along with Catriona Matthew, Choi Na-yeon and Rachel Rohanna.
Ko already has two victories in California this year, winning the Kia Classic and ANA Inspiration — the first major of the year — in consecutive weeks.
“Course is easy, whatever course she’s playing on,” the top-ranked Ko joked about So. “Obviously, everything was going right today. For her to shoot a score like that, that’s really impressive.”
So is winless since the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open. She also won the 2011 US Women Open and 2012 Jamie Farr Toledo Classic.
“Every tournament, I really want to win” So said. “I think it’s a bit too early to discuss about the result. We still have three more days.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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