Chien Pie-yun takes surprise Chevron Championship lead but Korda lurks
Nelly Korda made birdies at her last two holes at the Chevron Championship on Thursday to climb within one of the surprise leader, Chien Pei-yun, who made an opening-round five-under 67 to set the pace at the first women’s major of the year.
Taiwan’s Chien, the world’s 189thranked player, was among the early starters at the Club at Carlton Woods near Houston, mixing six birdies with a bogey to top the leaderboard at the Jack Nicklaus designed course.
However, she will be looking over her shoulder at a chasing pack of six players including Korda, the Tokyo Olympic gold medallist, who signed for a 68 along with Japan’s Ayaka Furue, the Australian Stephanie Kyriacou, South Korea’s Chella Choi and the Americans Marina Alex and Lilia Vu. Vu and Kyriacou both jumped up the leaderboard with late eagles, the American’s coming on her penultimate hole and the Australian’s on her last.
Korda, who is hunting a second major following her triumph at the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship, missed last year’s Chevron due to injury but the world No 2 is back to full fitness and has four top-six finishes in five starts this season.
“I took advantage of the par-fives today, I think I birdied them all, so that was important,” said Korda, who was among the late starters and sat out an hour during a dangerous weather delay. “Overall I played pretty well. It was nice to finish the way I did with just a tap-in birdie.”
With the Chevron moving to the Club at Carlton Woods after calling the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, home for 51 years, the nine past champions in the field, including the world No 1, Lydia Ko, and the 2022 winner, Jennifer Kupcho, have no homefield advantage. Kupcho opened her title defence with a levelpar 72.
Ko had a rollercoaster round including four birdies and three bogeys which left the New Zealander on one under alongside Canada’s two-times major winner Brooke Henderson. “It wasn’t my sharpest,” said Ko. “But to start off at under par I think is a good way to start this week. It’s not easy.”
Chien certainly found the move to Texas to her liking. Playing the back nine first, she made the turn at twounder before making her only bogey of the day at the first. That would be the 32-year-old’s only stumble as she recovered in style to make four birdies over her final six holes.
“I saw the pin sheet last night, and I can’t sleep,” said Chien, who came to the major off her best result of the season, a tie for fourth at last week’s Lotte Championship. “It feels so hard. I think we did very well today.”