Leona Maguire opened with a 65 at Lake Merced Golf Club and will take a one-shot lead into Friday’s second round of the LPGA Mediheal Championship.
The 26-year old Ireland native finished her first day in Daly City, Calif. with two bogeys against nine birdies, highlighted by four in her first six holes.
“Yeah, I got off to a really nice start,” said Maguire, who is a Duke alumnus.
“Birdied my opening two holes, which kind of settled me in quite nicely, holed some really good putts and in general it was a pretty stress-free day, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens and, yeah, my putting was nice.
“I felt like I putted really well in Vegas and sort of kept that going here, which was nice.”
One back was Jasmine Suwannapura, who finished with eight birdies against two bogeys en route to a 6-under 66, good for solo second-place.
“Yeah, I mean, I did see my score up on the leaderboard, but, well, this week I have my fiance coming in caddie for me, and it’s a new experience for us and we just have fun out there on the golf course,” said Suwannapura.
“So he’s really cute. He try to not make a mistake, but he’s there for me, so we just fun on the course pretty much.”
Alison Lee and Albane Valenzuala were T3 on 4 under.
LPGA Mediheal Championship
Top-5 Leaders: First Round
Pos-Player-To Par (Rd 1)
1. Leona Maguire -7 (65)
2. Jasmine Suwannapura -6 (66)
3. Alison Lee -4 (68)
3. Albane Valenzuala -4 (68)
5. Six Players Tied -3 (69)
Full Leaderboard
Material from the LPGA Tour Communications was used to compile this report.
