Rookie Park Sung-hyun on Friday fired an eight-under-par 63 to take the first-round lead at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in the city of Rogers.
Park went out in 31, including a stretch of six consecutive birdies interrupted by her only bogey of the day, and added three more birdies on the back, despite hitting just eight of 13 fairways.
“My play was best with putter today, very good,” Park said.
Photo: AFP
Three players were two shots back, including Ryu So-yeon, Mel Reid and Ally McDonald.
“I went to see [TV commentator and former professional golfer] Ian Baker-Finch and he told me — he actually make me really comfortable to do putting. Like, he gave me a lot of confidence, like just trust yourself,” Ryu said. “Also, I played with Nick Price, which it was really a pleasure to play with him. He also told me like your putting stroke is so smooth and you’re really great, so after that I got extra confidence.”
Reid, also a rookie, birdied five of her first seven holes. A hole-in-one at the par-three 11th moved her to eight-under, but she made bogey on two of the final seven holes.
“As soon as I hit it I thought: Oh, it’s got a chance,” Reid said of her hole-in-one. “It just pitched a little longer than we thought, but, yeah, I mean, a hole-in-one. I hit a good shot into there. I just hit a little nine-iron, so I think it was 135. I just tried to play a 130 shot and it pitched about seven behind it and came back.”
Reid’s 65 is her low round of the year and came after she missed the cut in her past three starts.
Ryu played bogey-free golf with six birdies. McDonald finished with seven birdies and a bogey.
Defending champion Lydia Ko shot a one-under 70.
Stacy Lewis, the 2014 champion, was part of a group that included Juli Inkster, Moriya Jutanugarn, Felicity Johnson and Katherine Kirk at five-under.
Taiwan’s Chien Pei-yun shot a three-under 68, starting on the back nine with birdies on 11, 14 , 16 and 18, but erasing some of that work with bogeys on holes two and five before picking up another shot on seven.
Other Taiwanese were further back: Hsu Wei-ling (72), Yani Tseng (73) Min Lee (74) and Candie Kung (75).
Additional reporting by staff reporter
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