(Photo credit score: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)
Xiyu “Janet” Lin of China set the tempo early and Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea joined her by the tip of the day, forging a tie for the lead at 4-under 68 after one spherical of the U.S. Women’s Open on Thursday at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links.
Lin, the World No. 9, is the highest-ranked participant with out a win on the LPGA Tour. Her counterpart, Kim, is ranked No. 8 on the planet and received her first and solely main title on the 2014 Evian Championship.
They held a one-shot lead over six gamers tied for third at 3-under 69, notably Leona Maguire of Ireland, Nasa Hataoka of Japan and 21-year-old Irish beginner Aine Donegan.
Two extra amateurs — Italy’s Benedetta Moresco, 21, and Amari Avery, 19 — had been a part of a tie for ninth at 2-under 70.
Lin stayed in nice kind after ending tied for third on the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship two weeks in the past. She began on the again 9 and made her first two birdies on the par-4 fifteenth and par-5 18th holes, the latter on a 30 1/2-foot putt. She added birdies at Nos. 2, 4 and 6 to move Donegan, and her solely bogey got here at her closing gap, No. 9.
Donegan had led for a part of the morning wave earlier than ending with an eagle, 5 birdies and 4 bogeys in her main debut.
Then Kim went out within the afternoon wave and piled up 4 birdies over her first eight holes earlier than taking a step again with a bogey at No. 9. She stayed at 3 below till the par-3 seventeenth, the place her 20 1/2-foot birdie putt fell to make her a co-leader once more.
The third main of the ladies’s golf season is providing up a document $11 million purse, with $2 million to the winner.
It additionally marks the primary modern-era ladies’s main at Pebble Beach, which stumped among the greatest gamers on the planet early on. World No. 1 Jin Young Ko of South Korea shot with a 7-over 79 and World No. 2 Nelly Korda was at 4-over 76.
Michelle Wie West, within the closing occasion of her enjoying profession, opened with a 79.
–Field Level Media