Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa closed with 4 birdies over her closing eight holes and took the outright lead of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with a 5-under 66 on Thursday at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.
Canada’s Brooke Henderson, as nicely Xiyu Lin and Ruoning Yin of China, had been in a three-way tie for second place at 4-under within the second ladies’s main of 2023.
Pace, 42, was at 1-under on the flip then started her string of birdies on the par-4 eleventh gap, matching it on the par-3 twelfth. In a four-way tie for the lead heading into her closing gap of the primary spherical, Pace then birdied the par-5 18th.
Pace’s greatest end in a significant was a tie for sixth on the 2015 Evian Championship.
Henderson, who gained the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship, began on the again 9 with two birdies and a bogey earlier than she closed sturdy with birdies on the first, sixth and her closing gap of the day, the par-3 ninth.
Henderson is vying for her third profession main after successful final yr’s Evian Championship.
Lin had a pair of birdies on all sides and no bogeys throughout her opening spherical. She had a birdie on the par-4 thirteenth gap and the par-5 seventeenth gap to complete off her 67. Lin’s greatest end in a significant was a tie for seventh within the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open.
Yin, who has by no means completed larger than forty first in a significant, began on the again 9 and reached the halfway level of her spherical with a birdie at No. 17 and an eagle 3 on the par-5 18th gap.
Wichanee Meechai of Thailand was alone in fifth place at 3-under 68. Meechai has but to document a top-10 end in a significant.
–Field Level Media