KORDA SETS L.A. OPEN 36-HOLE RECORD
Jessica Korda shot a 6under 65 on Thursday in the HUGEL Air Premia LA Open to break the tournament 36hole scoring record and increase her lead to three strokes.
A day after matching the Wilshire Country Club tournament record with a 64, Korda opened her bogey-free morning round with birdies on three of her first four holes — holing a 15-footer to start on the par-4 10th. At 13-under 129, she broke the event mark of 8 under set by Moriya Jutanugarn in 2018 in the inaugural tournament.
“It’s going to sound crazy, but I actually lipped out a good amount out there today, so it actually could have been lower,” Korda said. “I don’t complain. I know I made a bogey yesterday, but I made up for it with some birdies. Just had a little bit of a harder time with some speed today.”
Top-ranked Jin Young Ko was second after a 65. Playing in the afternoon, she lost a late stroke with a bogey on the par-4 17th.
Fellow South Korean star Sei Young Kim was 9 under. She closed her afternoon
round with a bogey on the par-3 18th for a 66.
Canadian Brooke Henderson (65) and 43-year-old Angela Stanford (66) were 8 under. So Yeon Ryu (67) was another shot back with Hannah Green (67) and Tiffany Chan (70). Second-ranked Inbee Park (68) was 6 under.
Karda was 17 strokes ahead of playing partners Lydia Ko and Patty Tavatanakit.
Michelle Wie West followed an opening 70 with a 77 to miss her third straight cut in her
comeback.
Two PGA teams tied
Brice Garnett and Scott Stallings birdied eight of their last 11 holes, Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura birdied nine of their final 12, and both teams shot 10-under 62 in the Zurich Classic to share the first-round lead at Avondale, La.
“Kris decided to heat up his putter. That really helped,” Hovland said.
“But I felt like we really played solid golf all 18 holes.”
Seven teams shot 63, including two-time Zurich champion Billy Horschel and his teammate, Louisiana native and former LSU player Sam Burns.
San Diego’s Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay — the only team with two players ranked in the world’s top 10 — finished among a handful of teams at 64, including the tandem of Bubba Watson and Scottie Scheffler.
Elsewhere
Joost Luiten hit a hole-inone en route to a 7-under 63 that put him in a share of the lead after the first round of the Gran Canaria Open at Las Palmas, Spain. Luiten aced the par-3 15th hole in a round that also included seven birdies and two bogeys, leaving him tied with Joachim Hansen, Maximilian Kieffer and Robin Roussel.
Notable
The USGA will have a final qualifying site in South Carolina to account for a new tournament that replaces the RBC Canadian Open. Final qualifying is June 7, with the exception of qualifiers in Texas and Japan, which will be May 24.