September 26-29
Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, Indianapolis, Indiana
$2,000,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Mi Jung Hur shot a 9-under 63 on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the Indy Women in Tech Championship.

Hur played a bogey-free round at Brickyard Crossing, the layout that features four holes inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.

"I was trying to keep on being present," Hur said. "That's the key to play good today. … If you think about the future, mess up everything. It's really hard to do it, but that's my goal for the whole year."

Hur won the Ladies Scottish Open last month for her third LPGA Tour victory.

"I got a lot of confidence and playing like a bit more comfy," Hur said. "My long game gets better and putting doing well, everything doing well, so had a good year so far."

Law takes advantage of perfect day

With the sun shining down on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Bronte Law went bogey-free en route to a 65 during the first round of the IWiT Championship. Law, who hit every green in regulation, said it felt good to end the day with a couple of birdie chances.

“Well, the weather was perfect, the conditions were set up really well, so it was out there, for sure. I had plenty of chances and just kept going with the flow all day. Made a couple really nice putts and found myself birdieing the last two, which is nice,” she said.

Law comes to Indianapolis after an intense Solheim Cup across the pond in Scotland, where Team Europe defeated the United States in a nail-biting finish, 14.5-13.5. Lack of rest aside, the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course is familiar ground for the 24-year-old Englishwoman. Last year, Law put together four rounds in the 60s with only two bogeys and finished T12. She said it is easy to find momentum on this course when you find your groove early.

“I think there's plenty of birdie chances, so as long as you stay out of trouble, you can really get yourself a good round going,” said Law. “So just trying to hit the fairways, hit the greens, which I did a good job of today, and you can find yourself with a low one.” 

Yokomine opens with hot round in Indy

Sakura Yokomine did not know what to expect of herself coming into the Indy Women in Tech Championship. She decided to go into the tournament with a relaxed approach, and it worked to her advantage. The Japanese native recorded her lowest round of the 2019 season, a 7-under 65, to end the first day at Brickyard Crossing in a tie for second.

“This week, [she] just kind of start with no, like no thinking,” said Yokomine through a translator. “She was thinking like too much about mechanic, yeah. So she started from nothing and then like she was playing really well because she was putting well.”

Yokomine, who is still searching for her first win on the LPGA Tour, said she still is not 100 percent satisfied and taking each shot as it comes.

“She's kind of thinking right now like she doesn't know like the goal, like what's her goal is,” said Yokomine. “Right now she's kind of like thinking what to do next, step by step.” 

Solheim Cup bump

Two weeks ago at the Solheim Cup, history was made. Three days of competition came down to the last group on the 18th hole, with Europe topping the U.S. for the first time since 2013. This week in Indianapolis, players from both the European and U.S. teams are still riding the momentum from the busy week in Scotland. 

Following the opening round at the Indy Women in Tech Championship driven by Group1001, six 2019 Solheim Cup players are inside the top 15 led by Europe's star rookie Bronte Law at 7-under par.

Team USA rookie Marina Alex got off to a hot start in Indianapolis with a 6-under 66, and said she was able to draw off her solid play in team competition and translate that into a good round on Thursday.

“I played well in Scotland,” said Alex, who went 1-1-2 in her Solheim Cup debut. “The conditions were so tough and different. Maybe didn't see as many birdies over there because it was just challenging, but I felt like I made some really nice putts there, whether they were for par or for birdie, whatever the case is. The format's a little different. So I felt like I was able to bring that here and knew that as long as I was hitting it pretty well, I was going to have a decent score.”

For most of the 2019 LPGA season, Jodi Ewart Shadoff was battling back problems. Prior to helping the European team win the Solheim Cup she underwent a minor surgery. Ewart Shadoff was pain free on Thursday as she fired a bogey-free 5-under par 67 and said she was feeling back to her old self after some much needed rest.

“I took a couple days off, Solheim is very tiring, and then I just got -- you know, I haven't been able to put in, you know, really good practice for a while because I've been going through a back injury, but now like I'm fully fit and finally being able to like practice, you know, like normal,” Ewart Shadoff said.

Ally McDonald , a 2019 Team USA rookie, hit every green on Thursday at Brickyard Crossing and shot a first-round 67. Afterwards, she echoed Ewart Shadoff's sentiment that rest was a priority leading up to this week.

“I practiced a little bit just to get prepped with these last two tournaments before we start the Asia swing,” McDonald said. “So yeah, it was just I needed a couple days to kind of get recuperated after the long week, but I was excited to get back out and compete these last several events we have of the season.”