Coughlin has Korda on her tail in Texas; Ko tied for fifth
THE WOODLANDS, Texas: Lauren Coughlin posted a bogeyfree, 6under 66 yesterday to take the early lead at the Chevron Championship, but whitehot World No 1 Nelly Korda is right behind after one round of the first women’s major of the year in The Woodlands, Texas.
Korda, who has won her past four LPGA starts, birdied four of her final six holes at The Club at Carlton Woods to shoot 4under 68, tied for second with Marina Alex and Japan’s Minami Katsu.
Korda may be the star on the leaderboard, but everyone is looking up at Coughlin — a 31yearold ranked No 94 in the world. Coughlin has only three top10 finishes in her LPGA career, including a T8 at the Ford Championship last month.
‘‘It was really hard to keep going in the beginning,’’ Coughlin said of her career.
‘‘But it’s been really fun. I just keep trying to get better every year . . . improve on things, a little here or there, and keep things I do well well but also fix some of the things or improve on some of the things that I can, and that’s been what I’ve been focusing on, and it’s been awesome.’’
With her husband on the bag this week, Coughlin started the tournament birdiebirdie at Nos 10 and 11 and wound up carding three birdies on each side.
Coughlin was asked who she saw as her ‘‘main competition’’ entering this week.
‘‘I mean, Nelly, of course,’’ Coughlin said.
‘‘She’s everybody’s competition.’’ After opening with a bogey at No 10, Korda picked up two birdies before making the turn. She was back to even par after another bogey at No 2, but she rolled in birdie putts at Nos 4, 6, 8 and 9 as the afternoon wave drew to a close.
‘‘Two of them were par5s, so I got to take advantage of that with my length,’’ Korda said. ‘‘Hit a really good tee shot, and then I was just on the front of the green on 17, and the other one I was just on the fringe, too. I twoputted pretty much for birdie on those. Then I had wedge shots in on the other two, too. Taking advantage of my length and hitting good tee shots.’’
Lydia Ko, of New Zealand, Gabriela Ruffels of Australia, Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand, South Korea’s Jin Hee Im and China’s Xiyu Lin are tied for fifth at 3under 69.