Gerina Piller on Thursday shot an eight-under 63 in the Marathon Classic to take a one-stroke lead over Taiwan’s Chien Pei-yun and US Women’s Open champion Park Sung-hyun.
Winless on the LPGA Tour, Piller had nine birdies and a bogey in the first round at Highland Meadows. The American birdied the first three holes and four of the first five.
“Got off to a good start and got the putts rolling,” Piller said. “To be honest, my ball-striking didn’t feel as great coming into this weekend, and the week after a major it’s always tough, just because you’re so exhausted mentally. I just went out there and really trusted what I had and just brought it together. My game feels really good right now.”
Chien, an LPGA Tour rookie, had eight birdies and a bogey.
“The golf course is narrow,” Chien said. “It’s very tough first shot, because you need to play a cut or little draw a lot, not just hit it straight... I changed my playing, because I’m always thinking the swing on the golf course, so today I just played freely, tried to find some feeling and play.”
Park, the South Korean player who won her first major title last week at Trump National in New Jersey, had seven birdies in a bogey-free round.
“My feeling today was so awesome,” Park said. “It was a good start after the major championship, winning. First of all, I need to focus more on the Marathon Classic and want to keep my happiness behind from now on.”
Kelly Shon, Aditi Ashok and Kim In-kyung shot 65, while Angel Yin and Sandra Changkija followed at 66 and US Solheim Cup players Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome and Alison Lee topped the group at 67.
Kaohsiung-born Candie Kung of the US and Taiwan’s Min Lee were in a group tied for 17th on three-under 68, while Cheng Ssu-chia carded a four-over 75 for a share of 131st and Yani Tseng slumped to a tie for 136th on five-over 76.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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