CHUN SETS FIRST-ROUND MARK
In Gee Chun is alone atop the Women’s PGA Championship following a sensational start.
In fact, no player has ever been further ahead after 18 holes at a women’s major.
Chun breezed to an 8-under 64 on Thursday to take a five-stroke advantage after the first round at Congressional. While most of the field slogged through the day on the wet Blue Course in Bethesda, Md., Chun birdied seven of eight holes during one stretch. She was seven shots ahead when she finished her round and ended up tying a record for the largest 18-hole lead at a major.
Mickey Wright led this tournament by five after one round in 1961.
“I don’t know what golf course In Gee is playing,” defending champion Nelly Korda said after finishing her round of 71.
Chun was playing the same course as everyone else — one that went through a full restoration last year. There was heavy rain in the area overnight and more precipitation during play Thursday morning. That softened the course but also made Congressional’s length — 6,809 yards for this first round — more of a factor.
No big deal for Chun, a two-time major winner.
“The course, after a lot of rain, feels longer,” the 27-year-old South Korean said. “At the same time, greens were softer. So I think it was just a balance.”
Pornanong Phatlum and HyeJin Choi shot bogey-free rounds of 69 to cut Chun’s lead to five, but that was still a big enough advantage to tie Wright’s mark.
Chun did set a major championship record — for men or women — when she won the Evian Championship in 2016 at 21 under. She also won the U.S. Women’s Open the previous year.
McIlroy, Poston share lead
Rory McIlroy fought off a sinus bug to shoot an 8-under 62 for a share of the first-round lead with J.T. Poston in the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.
Coming off a fifth-place tie in the U.S. Open after winning the Canadian Open the previous week, the second-ranked McIlroy had a bogey-free morning round.
McIlroy matched the lowest opening round of his PGA Tour career. He finished with a tap-in birdie on the ninth hole after a 332-yard
drive and 44-foot chip just past the pin.
“It’s like U.S. Open rehab coming here,” the four-time major champion said.
Poston had five straight birdies on Nos. 13-17 and made the turn at 6-under 29, giving rise to thoughts of Jim Furyk’s record 58 on the same TPC River Highlands course in 2016. Poston parred the first six holes on the front nine and birdied Nos. 7 and 9 to cap a bogey-free round.
“I gave myself a few looks, but kind of made a bunch of pars to start the front, so that was kind of
out of the picture after a little while,” said Poston, the 2019 Wyndham Championship winner.
Xander Schauffele and Martin Laird were a stroke back. San Diego’s Schauffele hit all 18 greens in regulation for the first time in his career.
Haas, 68, shoots 67
Jay Haas steadied himself from an uneven start to the U.S. Senior Open at soggy Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, Pa., posting a 4-under 67 to share the lead with Mark Hensby after the opening round.
Haas, 68, became the fifth player
in U.S. Senior Open history to shoot his age.
“That’s a pretty good score to break (your age) on a course like this,” said Haas, who shot his age six previous times on Champions.
Also
Li Haotong took the lead with a 10-under 62 on the first day of the BMW International Open.
• The DP World Tour will announce today that golfers from the LIV Golf Invitational Series won’t be allowed to play at the Scottish Open, according to The Telegraph via ESPN.