Chevron Championship: Nelly Korda, the world’s No. 2 golfer, birdied her final two holes at The Chevron Tournament to pull within one of Peiyun Chien, who surprised everyone by taking the lead after the first round with a score of five under par.
At the Jack Nicklaus-designed Club at Carlton Woods in Houston, Taiwan’s Chien, the 189th-ranked player in the world, was among the early starters. He combined six birdies with a bogey to take the lead.
She will, however, be watching out for a group of six players who signed for a 68, including Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Korda, Japanese Ayaka Furue, Australian Stephanie Kyriacou, South Korean Chella Choi, and Americans Marina Alex and Lilia Vu.
With late eagles—the American on her penultimate hole and the Aussie on her final—Vu and Kyriacou both shot up the leaderboard.
Georgia Hall of England is three strokes back of the leader after shooting two under par, while Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Charlotte Thomas of England both scored one over par 73s.
Leona Maguire of Ireland is further down on four over, and Charley Hull of England had a terrible first round with seven bogeys and no birdies for a score of 79.
After winning the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship, Korda is on the lookout for her second major championship. She missed the Chevron last year due to an injury, but she is now fully healthy and has four top-six performances in five starts this season.
Being one of the later starters who had to wait an hour due to hazardous weather, Korda remarked, “I took advantage of the par-fives today, I think I birdied them all, so that was crucial. I did quite well overall. It was fantastic to end with simply a tap-in birdie as I did.”
The nine former champions in the field, including world No. 1 Lydia Ko and winner of the 2022 tournament Jennifer Kupcho, do not have a home-field advantage because the Chevron is moving to The Club at Carlton Woods after spending 51 years at Mission Hills Golf Club in Rancho Mirage, California.
Kupcho began defending her championship with a 72 on par.
With four birdies and three bogeys throughout his round, Ko had a rollercoaster day that left him tied for first place with Brooke Henderson of Canada, who has won two majors, at 1-under 71.
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