12-time LPGA Tour winner Sei Young Kim got off to a blazing start at the 2023 Cognizant Founders Cup, firing a bogey-free 6-under 66 on Thursday, including a streak of four consecutive birdies at 12, 13, 14 and 15.
The Korean superstar already has a Founders title to her name, capturing the 2016 edition held in Arizona, and is now aiming for her first LPGA Tour victory since 2020’s The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
“This course is (one of my) favorite courses,” said Kim. “This course has kind of lot of trees on both sides, and keeping (the ball in) the fairway, it’s really important this week.”
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LPGA Tour rookie Hae Ran Ryu, also from South Korea, holds solo second at 5-under, carding eight birdies and three bogeys in her opening round. Sitting at 1-under through 11 holes, Ryu went on the same tear as Kim, dropping birdies at 12, 13, 14 and 15 to vault up the leaderboard.
The 22-year-old, who has five victories on the KLPGA Tour, is looking for her breakthrough moment on the LPGA Tour after earning medalist honors at the 2022 Q-Series.
“At the very first (event) I have really low confidence and I’m always draw a question mark myself, (if) I can do my best or I can do it well,” said Ryu, whose best finish in 2023 is a tie for sixth at the JM Eagle LA Championship. “But after the tournament and after the rounds I’m getting more confidence at the tour, and from now, I’m really doing well I think.”
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Nine players are tied for third at 4-under, including defending champion Minjee Lee of Australia and two-time Founders champion Jin Young Ko of South Korea.
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Others in the pack at 4-under are U.S. Solheim Cup captain and 2013 Founders winner Stacy Lewis; Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul; The Chevron Championship’s first-round leader Peiyun Chien from Taiwan; and South Korean Hye-Jin Choi, who carded eagles on two of her first four holes.
“Hit a lot of good shots today that ended up on the fringe so the stats maybe don’t show the ball striking. I think (stats) showed I only hit 12 greens, but probably putted four or five times from the fringe,” said Lewis. “So the misses were really good, and just took what the course gave me and took advantage of the par-5s.”
Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda (USA) is tied for 45th after an even-par 72 on Thursday. Korda’s caddie this week is Joe LaCava, the former looper for Tiger Woods who recently started working with Patrick Cantlay. Jason McDede, Korda’s regular caddie, is out on paternity leave and will return at her next LPGA Tour event, the Mizuho Americas Open.
