Green putts her way to lead at PGA Championship

Six-way tie for first-round lead at Travelers tourney

CHASKA, Minn. — Hannah Green of Australia got just about everything wrong in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship except what mattered: Her score.

Green didn’t have wet weather gear when she teed off Thursday at Hazeltine as it started to rain — she doesn’t like rain pants, anyway, because they make too much noise. On a long, tough course at Hazeltine National, she missed nine greens and never had a tap-in for par.

No matter. She took 23 putts, none on the par-5 seventh when she holed a bunker shot, and she kept bogeys off her card for a 4-under 68 for a one-shot lead over Hyo Joo Kim and Mel Reid.

“I guess I just had a lot of luck today with putts going in and getting good bounces,” Green said.

Kim set small goals to help her on a big course. She wanted to hit 12 greens and take no more than 30 putts, and she accomplished both in her 69. Reid played in one of the final groups and finished strong, hitting just inside the hazard right of the 16th fairway, taking her shot over a tree and grandstand and onto the green.

Hazeltine was as tough as advertised, playing at 6,831 yards — just 244 yards short of the Pebble Beach scorecard last week at the U.S. Open.

It was long enough that Ariya Jutanugarn not only carried a driver for the first time all year, she hit it — twice.

“Made bogey” she said with a laugh after her 70.

And it was tough enough — especially with a mixture of rain, wind, a drop in temperatures, sunshine and more rain — that only 16 players broke par and 20 players shot 80 or high. One of them was Michelle Wie, who returned from two months off with an injured right wrist and matched her highest score as a pro with an 84. She was happy to be playing golf again, which made her score feel even worse.

“I’m not entirely sure how much left I have in me,” Wie said as she began to cry. “I love being out here.”

Green had everything going her way except for being prepared for the elements. She opened with a 15-foot par putt. She followed with a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th, which played so long in these conditions — 557 yards — that she had 7-iron for her third shot. Most of the pars she saved were in the 6-foot range.

“I don’t really think I ever had a tap-in putt for my par putts when I missed the green,” she said. “I made all of them. Very happy with that.”

She also had her own cheering section. Karrie Webb, Australia’s most prolific major champion, has been offering scholarships to two amateurs for the last several years. They are with Webb this week, and followed Green along. They’re all staying in the same house, cooking and working on a 2,000-piece puzzle they wanted to finish in time for their barbecue Saturday.

This is meaningful to Green because she was a Karrie Webb scholarship winner four years ago, coming over to America for the U.S. Women’s Open.

PGA: In Cromwell, Conn., Zack Sucher made a 9-foot birdie putt in the last group of the day on the par-4 18th for a 6-under 64 and a share of a six-way tie for the lead Thursday in the Travelers Championship.

Ryan Armour and Bronson Burgoon set the mark during the morning at TPC River Highlands and the others matched them in the afternoon. MacKenzie Hughes sank an 18-foot birdie putt on his final hole, Abraham Ancer shot a 30 on his back nine, and Kyoung-Hoon Lee shot his lowest round on the PGA Tour.

Defending champion Bubba Watson opened with a 69 in his bid for his fourth Travelers title. That would put him in the company of Billy Casper, the only golfer to win four times at Connecticut’s PGA Tour stop.