SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Lexi Thompson knew some type of the query was coming after taking pictures a 4-under 68 and taking the first-round lead Thursday within the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship.
Would a significant title change her plans about retiring from taking part in full-time on the LPGA Tour?
“I am simply taking it sooner or later at a time. I made my announcement. I am very content material with it,” Thompson stated. “Golf is a loopy sport, so I am not going to look too far forward.”
Thompson made six birdies on her approach to a one-shot lead over Nelly Korda and Patty Tavatanakit.
Teeing off within the afternoon as temperatures climbed into the 80s and dried out Sahalee Nation Membership, Thompson began sizzling with three straight birdies to open her spherical and constructed on final week when she misplaced in a playoff on the Meijer LPGA Basic.
The 29-year-old Thompson, who not too long ago introduced her plans to retire after the season, shot a bogey-free 32 on the entrance 9, capped with a 6-foot birdie on the par-3 ninth. After a bogey at No. 10, Thompson rebounded with birdies at Nos. 12 and 14 earlier than one other bogey on the sixteenth.
She gained the final of her 11 LPGA Tour titles on the ShopRite LPGA Basic in June 2019. The 68 is her lowest spherical in a significant since a 67 within the second spherical of the Girls’s PGA two years in the past at Congressional.
“My method pictures felt nice,” Thompson stated. “They felt actually good final week, so simply attempting to simplify issues and get in a rhythm with my swing.”
Korda shot 69 within the morning, and Tavatanakit matched it within the afternoon with a bogey-free spherical.
The highest-ranked Korda missed the cuts within the U.S. Girls’s Open and the Meijer LPGA Basic in her final two begins after successful six of seven occasions, a run that began with a record-tying 5 straight victories.
Korda began on the again 9 and made 4 birdies on her first 5 holes. However elements of the morning had been a scramble for Korda because the Douglass fir, purple cedar and hemlock bushes of Sahalee performed their function in making it a problem. A double bogey on the par-4 fourth gap dropped her again to 2 underneath.
“If you happen to attempt to be aggressive once you’ve hit it off line, it simply bites you within the butt,” Korda stated. “Total, I feel I performed fairly nicely. I took my possibilities the place I might and I performed secure the vast majority of the spherical.”
Korda made a 15-foot putt on the par-3 ninth gap — her ultimate gap — to take the early lead.
There was one other group of gamers at 2 underneath, together with Allisen Corpuz, Celine Boutier, Charley Hull and Leona Maguire. Maguire led this event after the third spherical final yr at Baltusrol, however shot 74 on the ultimate day and completed 4 pictures again of the winner, Ruoning Yin.
Taking part in with Korda, Yin rebounded from a tough begin and shot 33 on her second 9 to shoot 71.
“Fortunately hit it fairly straight in the present day. Hit a number of fairways and greens. Nevertheless it does really feel like a course the place when you’re out of place it is powerful to get again on observe,” stated Corpuz, who has an outdoor likelihood of creating the Olympics for america with a powerful end this week.
The third main of the yr on the LPGA Tour returned to Sahalee, which beforehand hosted in 2016. And the tree-lined course confirmed its problem.
Lilia Vu, who gained final week in her return from a again harm, shot 75. Yuka Saso, the U.S. Open winner three weeks in the past, made 4 consecutive bogeys on the again 9 and completed at 2-over 74. Brooke Henderson, who gained in 2016, shot 73.
Korda acquired off to a much better begin than her final main, when she shot 80 within the opening spherical of the U.S. Girls’s Open three weeks in the past.
Korda’s early run of birdies included three straight between Nos. 13-15 and she or he and went out in 33. She moved to 4 underneath after a birdie on the third gap — her twelfth of the day — however dropped two pictures on the fourth.
“This whole golf course is so demanding,” Korda stated. “I needed to make some fairly good up-and-downs.”
