Park shoots 66 in third LPGA major
Sung Hyun Park sees herself rounding back into form.
Winning a second major sure would be a good way to prove it, and to that end, the 24-year-old South Korean player is off to a good start. Park shot a bogey-free 6-under 66 yesterday to take the first-round lead in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Kildeer, Ill. The 2017 U.S. Women’s Open Champion birdied three of the four par-5 holes at Kemper Lakes in the third of the LPGA Tour’s five majors.
Brooke Henderson, the 2016 KPMG winner and runner-up last year, was a stroke back with Jessica Korda, Jaye Marie Green and Shrewsbury’s Brittany Altomore.
The 24-year-old Park won the weather-shortened LPGA Texas Classic in May, but followed that with three missed cuts and a tie for 61st last week in Arkansas. After a switch in putters, she believes she is rounding back into form.
The long-hitting Park birdied the par-5 15th to reach 5-under and parred the tough final three holes, finishing with a short putt on 18.
“I felt like something little was missing, especially my putting,” Park said through an interpreter. “But this week, I (feel) comfortable.”
Senior struggles
Though John Smoltz may have felt very much alone on the wind-whipped, sunbaked Broadmoor course, he wasn’t.
The pitching Hall of Famer spent Day 1 at the U.S. Senior Open in much the same position as the rest of the field — gouging out of ankle-high rough, then scrambling to put himself in position for par putts on tricky, mountain greens that left player after player shaking his head in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“I’m just being honest,” Smoltz said after a round of 15-over 85 left him tied for 150th. “I don’t have enough game for this course yet.” He wasn’t alone.
The ultimate test for the seniors produced only eight below-par scores, and not a single player — not even leader Jerry Kelly — finished 18 holes without a bogey on his card.
Kelly gave it a run, though. After saving par from the rough on the 559-yard, par4 17th — he was holding his right elbow after digging out the approach — Kelly was one 4-foot putt away from going bogey-free. But when that slid a fraction to the right at the cup, his flawless day was history.
Kelly still shot 4-under 66, which was good enough for a 2-shot lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez, Kevin Sutherland, Deane Pappas and Rocco Mediate.
Tiger tame
Tiger Woods used a new putter and got the same middling results in the Quicken Loans National.
Woods battled back from a double bogey with five straight birdie chances from 8 feet or closer. He made only two of them and had to settle for an even-par 70, leaving him 7 shots out of the lead in the opening round on the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac, Md.
Andrew Landry set the pace on a difficult, but rainsoftened course with a 7-under 63. J.J. Spaun matched him in the afternoon, playing in the group behind Woods without hardly anyone noticing that he played bogey-free while running off five birdies in a seven-hole stretch.
Landry, who won the Texas Open in April for his first PGA Tour title, also had a new putter in the bag. All the attention was on Woods, who had hoped a mallet-style putter might help him shake out of a putting slump. It didn’t.
“I shot about the score I should have shot (yesterday),” Woods said.
Rickie Fowler is the only competitor in the top 10 in the world, and he also rallied for a 70.
Dredge in Paris
Bradley Dredge carded a 4-under 67 to lead by a shot after the opening round of the French Open in Paris.
The Welsh player, who closed with a 66 at last week’s BMW International Open, continued his good form with five birdies in windy conditions at Le Golf National, where the Ryder Cup will be played in September.
Two-time champion Graeme McDowell, a vice captain for the European team, and Andy Sullivan of England were both a shot off the lead.