Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa set the early tempo on the Kroger Queen Metropolis Championship with a 7-under-par 65 within the first spherical Thursday in Maineville, Ohio.
Buhai racked up eight birdies and carries a one-shot lead into Friday. Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand and Yan Liu of China are at 6-under 66 after their first spherical via TPC River’s Bend, which is internet hosting the event for the primary time.
The group tied at 5-under 67 consists of World No. 1 Nelly Korda, Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand and Leona Maguire of Eire. Additionally a part of that tie are Savannah Grewal of Canada, Jasmine Suwannapura of Thailand, Peiyun Chien of Taiwan, Polly Mack of Germany and Angel Yin.
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For now, they’re all trying up at Buhai, the 2022 Ladies’s Open champion with 22 skilled wins worldwide, most of them in her native South Africa.
“I hit it nice, putted properly. That tends so as to add as much as what it did,” Buhai stated. “Yeah, I feel I used to be simply good with after I might assault. On the identical time, play to areas.
“There have been a couple of pins on the market the place you needed to nonetheless attempt to be aggressive, and the greens bought just a little agency and ran via, however then made some good up and downs to maintain me in it.”
Buhai birdied the par-3 sixteenth gap to maneuver to 7-under earlier than carding her lone bogey on the following gap. She made up for it at No. 18, a par-5, together with her remaining birdie of the day.
She stated she favored how TPC River’s Bend had three reachable par-5 holes.
“I am not lengthy. I am most likely common out right here and I might stand up to 3 of the par-5s, which was type of good for a change,” Buhai stated. “So I feel it’s set as much as go low, however on the identical time, there have been some fairly tough pins on the market that had been entrance and type of downwind and also you ended up being lengthy and I simply needed to take that and chip again.”
Thitikul, 21, is a former World No. 1 however is looking for her first particular person LPGA win in two years. She teamed up with China’s Ruoning Yin to win the Dow Championship, the tour’s lone workforce occasion, in June.
“I feel why I play properly can also be my mindset is type of relaxed,” Thitikul stated. “So simply type of make me like taking part in good, not like put strain on myself that a lot.”
Thitikul performed her spherical with Korda, who hit all 14 fairways in regulation and performed a bogey-free spherical. It is her first motion since serving to the USA defeat Workforce Europe within the Solheim Cup.
“Everybody that performed final week goes to be drained,” Korda stated. “I am simply attempting to take it one step at a time, know that my vitality ranges aren’t the best, however I am nonetheless motivated and 100%.”
Ko additionally went bogey-free Thursday and is taking part in for the primary time since profitable the Ladies’s Open simply two weeks after her Olympic triumph.
“I feel my husband and I type of flip to one another at instances and go, ‘Wow, I can not consider you gained the Olympics after which the AIG Ladies’s Open.’ So it was type of like being punched within the face twice in an excellent manner,” Ko quipped. “Clearly very grateful.”
Australia’s Minjee Lee, the defending champion, opened with a 1-under 71.
