LYDIA KO IN THREE-WAY TIE FOR CANADIAN OPEN ROUND 1 LEAD
FROM THE LPGA TOUR WEBSITE
Defending champion Lydia Ko got off to a great start in her title defense at the CN Canadian Women’s Open after shooting a 5-under par 65 in Thursday’s first round at Royal Mayfair Golf Club in Edmonton.
The 16-year old New Zealand native holds a share of the first-round lead with American Angela Stanford and Cristel Boeljon of The Netherlands. Ko was paired with 17-year old and European Solheim Cup team member Charley Hull (69) and 22-year old Canadian pro Jennifer Kirby (67) and said the solid play of the entire group played a part in her strong opening round.
“I started off really well with a birdie, but when I have a birdie on the first hole I haven't really played that well,” said Ko.”I was kind of nervous that I did make a birdie on the first. But I guess birdies are good, and I think I played pretty solid today.
“But I think I played good because the whole group seemed to play good and make lots of birdies, so we were in a really good rhythm as a whole group.”
The trio of young players combined to card 14 birdies and all said that they didn’t feel inexperienced.
“It didn't really feel like young players,” said Hull. “I think we're all kind of like mature.”
Kirby added that all three players kept a good pace throughout the first round.
“And quick,” said Kirby. “That was nice.”
Kirby carded four birdies and a bogey en route to a 3-under 67 and is currently two shots off the lead in a tie for sixth. The Paris, Ontario native and University of Alabama alum said that playing in the LPGA’s first stop in Canada at the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in July made a huge difference in her comfort level coming into this week.
“I think that it really helped that I played in the Manulife earlier this season and I had a good tournament there, so I think that kind of eased the nerves into this one,” said Kirby. “I felt very comfortable out there and ended up making a few putts, and good round.”
Co-leader Angela Stanford, who was bogey-free in her round of 65 on Thursday, said she needed to tighten things up off the tee this week. Transitioning from playing at the wide-open Colorado Golf Club last week at the Solheim Cup to the narrow fairways at Royal Mayfair was a priority in her game plan.
“I hit it really well today, really solid, and I've been hitting it solid. I think finally the ball found the bottom of the hole a little bit faster,” said Stanford. “I think if you can keep it in the fairways on this golf course, you'll have chances at birdie.”
“My instructor has said that when you have wide open fairways, a lot of times your swing gets kind of loose because you can miss it more than normal and still hit a fairway. So I had to really kind of focus in and get lined up correctly, because they are way more narrow.”
Rolex Rankings No. 1 Inbee Park shot a first-round, 3-under 67 and is currently two shots off the lead in a tie for sixth.
Helpful ace: Third-year LPGA Tour member Christel Boeljon had an uneventful first 14 holes in the first round of the CN Canadian Women’s Open. But she went birdie-eagle-birdie on Nos. 15-17 to move in to a share of the lead. Boeljon recorded her first LPGA hole-in-one on the 16th hole at Royal Mayfair and said the ace definitely gave her the boost she needed. She holed out from 126 yards with a 9-iron and blamed the sun for not being able to capture the moment.
“I only realized it by the lady that was behind the green that put her hands up, and I was like, I guess it's in, because we couldn't see with the sun,” said Boeljon. “Everyone was high fiving, so we got up to the hole, and we see it's in. It helps your score out a lot.”
Boeljon followed it up with a birdie on No. 17 and settled for par on her final hole to finish at 5-under-par and with a share of the lead. It marks the first time the Purdue University product has led or co-led after the first round in her career.
“It's just nice,” said Boeljon. “You know, it's nothing other than you hole a few putts, and I'm lucky that I hit that shot into the hole. But you do it more often, and for me it didn't feel anything different, it's just you try to just do your thing. Go through your routine again, just try to play shot by shot. My finishing hole I had a good bounce from the bunker, and yeah, just pleased with my game at the moment.”
Moving On: Angela Stanford didn’t have the week she hoped for at last week’s Solheim Cup. The U.S. Solheim Cup veteran didn’t tally a single point in her four matches in the event and no one felt worse about that than the Fort Worth, Texas resident.
But Stanford showed her resiliency on Thursday, bouncing back from last week’s disappointment by shooting 65 in the opening round of the CN Canadian Women’s Open to sit in a tie for the lead with defending champion Lydia Ko.
“Try to take positives from it,” Stanford said of her play at the Solheim Cup. “I don't know, it's hard because I'm the only one that has to live with it. I'm the one that it's probably haunting the most. So it's been really hard. I've thought about going home a few times, and I just don't think that would be the best thing was for me to get back on the horse. I had to get out and play and I guess just try to put it behind me.”
Stanford certainly found a way to get her game on track in her bogey-free opening round on Thursday. She hit 8 of 14 fairways and needed just 26 putts en route to shooting 65, which tied her lowest round of the year.
“I hit it really well today, really solid, and I've been hitting it solid,” said Stanford. “I think finally the ball found the bottom of the hole a little bit faster. I think if you can keep it in the fairways on this golf course, you'll have chances at birdie.”
Tournament of Youth? Last year Lydia Ko became the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history by capturing a victory at the CN Canadian Women’s Open outside Vancouver. Ko, 16, now sits in a tie for the lead again after Round 1 of this year’s event but perhaps it might be another youngster who is chasing her down over the final few days.
Seventeen-year-old Charley Hull, who was paired with Ko on Thursday, put herself into contention by shooting a 1-under 69 in the opening round of this year’s CN Canadian Women’s Open at Royal Mayfair to sit in a tie for 18th. Hull looked like she might sit even higher on the leaderboard prior to bogeying the final two holes in here round.
“I played pretty solid,” Hull said. “I just hit one on 17 and then I missed a silly little putt on 18. I just feel tired because I haven't been home for six weeks because I had quite a few competitions coming into the British Open, and I was back home for four days and then I come here, and then Solheim. I'm feeling pretty happy with my game and just going to practice some short putts after for a bit.”
The pairing of Ko, Hull and 22-year-old Canadian Jennifer Kirby was promoted for its youth but the trio certainly didn’t play like newbies to this level of competition. They combined to go 9-under-par for the day with Ko shooting a 5-under 65 and Kirby tallying a 3-under 67.
“I think it's pretty good,” Hull said of twhat the group was able to shoot. “I just see age as just a number. That's how I see it, because I feel like we're both mature. It's good to have something because then you can just talk about stuff outside golf, but like on the golf course, no, I don't think Lydia plays like she's 16.”
American onslaught: There was plenty of disappointment felt by the U.S. Solheim Cup Team following their loss last week to the Europeans at Colorado Golf Club outside Denver. But there didn’t appear to be too many lasting effects of the loss based on the performance of those players in Thursday’s first round of the CN Canadian Women’s Open.
Three of the American players found themselves in the top 5 after Thursday’s first round with Angela Stanford tied for the lead at 5-under-par while Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr were tied for fourth after shooting 4-under 66. Brittany Lincicome was also near the top of the leaderboard, as she sat in a tie for 11th at 2-under-par after her opening round.
“I mean, there's no excuses for last week,” said Kerr. “They just played better than us. We tried as hard as we could. I mean, that's a team competition. Somebody could go undefeated and you could lose. Our first Solheim Cup I won one point and lost four and we ended up winning, so it's kind of an interesting competition like that. But yeah, I'm glad to be in one on one competition now and ready to go.”
Kerr had a chance to finish tied for the lead but missed a 5-foot par putt on the 9th hole, her final hole of the day, to finish at 4-under 66.
“It's only the first day, too,” said Kerr. “There's three more days, and you have to play solid for four straight days. Even the person that wins the tournament eventually is going to miss a five footer during the week, unless you win by 12. That's just the way it goes.”
Park back in action: Top-ranked Inbee Park got right back to work after a two-week break from Tour action and opened this week with a 3-under 67 on Thursday. The South Korean said that the dry, warm conditions in Edmonton hardened up the course a bit, allowing her to go with shorter club selection and be more aggressive in her approach shots.
“The course dried out a lot so it played a little bit shorter than it did in the practice round, so I was hitting a little bit shorter irons, so I was able to attack some pins and I was able to make more birdies than I thought I could have made out there,” said Park. “I putted really good out there today, so I feel really good about it.”
Park had 26 putts in her first round, nearly three less than her season average (29.02) and didn’t let a poor start hold her back. She had two bogeys in her first three holes, but didn’t get hung up on her early blunders.
“The first three holes doesn't really mean anything because you still have 15 more holes to play, and I was just 1 over, and on this golf course that's not that bad of a score,” said Park. “The first couple bogeys were not that bad of shots, but out of the rough it's just tough to judge how much release you're going to get. I have been getting like 20 to 30 releases, sometimes I get 10, sometimes I get 30, so a couple of bad bounces on the first couple holes were the bogeys.”
She recovered with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 and another set on Nos. 2 and 3. The 25-year old said she’ll be ready for some softer conditions at her 8:15 a.m. tee time on Friday and said how she loves the challenging track at Royal Mayfair.
“Tomorrow morning it'll play a little bit longer probably with the cold weather, but the course is playing very fair, and I think it's a very good challenging course,” said Park.
Praising the course: Paula Creamer played well the last time the CN Canadian Women’s Open was held at Royal Mayfair Golf Club back in 2007. Creamer, who finished runner-up that year at the event, got off to another hot start this year in Edmonton, shooting a 4-under 66 to put herself in a tie for fourth.
“I hit the ball really well,” Creamer said. “I started off with a bogey on the 1st hole but kept giving myself some chances after that and kind of settled down into the round. 8:15 is an early tee time, so my body wasn't quite awake when we were teeing off. But I finished really strong, started to make some good putts and hit it close.”
One day after Karrie Webb lauded the condition of the golf course here at the Royal Mayfair to a local paper, saying that the course is one of the best conditioned they’ve had on Tour this year, Creamer echoed her sentiments. She also that this course should provide a good test for the player this week.
“I agree with that,” Creamer said of Webb’s assessment. “The golf course has some bounce to the fairways and the rough is really thick, so you miss fairways and you're pretty much in trouble. You've got to figure out how to salvage a 4. And the greens are great. It really is a good test of golf out here, and you've got to be able to put the ball in the right spot. If not, it's going to be a long day out there.”
Quote of the Day: “I think that they're wise beyond their years and they're both great players, so it wasn't too bad, and I didn't feel too old.” 22-year old Jennifer Kirby on playing with 16-year old Lydia Ko and 17-year old Charley Hull
Of Note…Rolex Rankings No. 2 Stacy Lewis withdrew from this week’s event due to illness after finishing the first round. Lewis shot a 4-over 74 in Thursday’s first round…
VIEW ALL THE CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN SCORES
CLICK HERE
Defending champion Lydia Ko got off to a great start in her title defense at the CN Canadian Women’s Open after shooting a 5-under par 65 in Thursday’s first round at Royal Mayfair Golf Club in Edmonton.
The 16-year old New Zealand native holds a share of the first-round lead with American Angela Stanford and Cristel Boeljon of The Netherlands. Ko was paired with 17-year old and European Solheim Cup team member Charley Hull (69) and 22-year old Canadian pro Jennifer Kirby (67) and said the solid play of the entire group played a part in her strong opening round.
“I started off really well with a birdie, but when I have a birdie on the first hole I haven't really played that well,” said Ko.”I was kind of nervous that I did make a birdie on the first. But I guess birdies are good, and I think I played pretty solid today.
“But I think I played good because the whole group seemed to play good and make lots of birdies, so we were in a really good rhythm as a whole group.”
The trio of young players combined to card 14 birdies and all said that they didn’t feel inexperienced.
“It didn't really feel like young players,” said Hull. “I think we're all kind of like mature.”
Kirby added that all three players kept a good pace throughout the first round.
“And quick,” said Kirby. “That was nice.”
Kirby carded four birdies and a bogey en route to a 3-under 67 and is currently two shots off the lead in a tie for sixth. The Paris, Ontario native and University of Alabama alum said that playing in the LPGA’s first stop in Canada at the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in July made a huge difference in her comfort level coming into this week.
“I think that it really helped that I played in the Manulife earlier this season and I had a good tournament there, so I think that kind of eased the nerves into this one,” said Kirby. “I felt very comfortable out there and ended up making a few putts, and good round.”
Co-leader Angela Stanford, who was bogey-free in her round of 65 on Thursday, said she needed to tighten things up off the tee this week. Transitioning from playing at the wide-open Colorado Golf Club last week at the Solheim Cup to the narrow fairways at Royal Mayfair was a priority in her game plan.
“I hit it really well today, really solid, and I've been hitting it solid. I think finally the ball found the bottom of the hole a little bit faster,” said Stanford. “I think if you can keep it in the fairways on this golf course, you'll have chances at birdie.”
“My instructor has said that when you have wide open fairways, a lot of times your swing gets kind of loose because you can miss it more than normal and still hit a fairway. So I had to really kind of focus in and get lined up correctly, because they are way more narrow.”
Rolex Rankings No. 1 Inbee Park shot a first-round, 3-under 67 and is currently two shots off the lead in a tie for sixth.
Helpful ace: Third-year LPGA Tour member Christel Boeljon had an uneventful first 14 holes in the first round of the CN Canadian Women’s Open. But she went birdie-eagle-birdie on Nos. 15-17 to move in to a share of the lead. Boeljon recorded her first LPGA hole-in-one on the 16th hole at Royal Mayfair and said the ace definitely gave her the boost she needed. She holed out from 126 yards with a 9-iron and blamed the sun for not being able to capture the moment.
“I only realized it by the lady that was behind the green that put her hands up, and I was like, I guess it's in, because we couldn't see with the sun,” said Boeljon. “Everyone was high fiving, so we got up to the hole, and we see it's in. It helps your score out a lot.”
Boeljon followed it up with a birdie on No. 17 and settled for par on her final hole to finish at 5-under-par and with a share of the lead. It marks the first time the Purdue University product has led or co-led after the first round in her career.
“It's just nice,” said Boeljon. “You know, it's nothing other than you hole a few putts, and I'm lucky that I hit that shot into the hole. But you do it more often, and for me it didn't feel anything different, it's just you try to just do your thing. Go through your routine again, just try to play shot by shot. My finishing hole I had a good bounce from the bunker, and yeah, just pleased with my game at the moment.”
Moving On: Angela Stanford didn’t have the week she hoped for at last week’s Solheim Cup. The U.S. Solheim Cup veteran didn’t tally a single point in her four matches in the event and no one felt worse about that than the Fort Worth, Texas resident.
But Stanford showed her resiliency on Thursday, bouncing back from last week’s disappointment by shooting 65 in the opening round of the CN Canadian Women’s Open to sit in a tie for the lead with defending champion Lydia Ko.
“Try to take positives from it,” Stanford said of her play at the Solheim Cup. “I don't know, it's hard because I'm the only one that has to live with it. I'm the one that it's probably haunting the most. So it's been really hard. I've thought about going home a few times, and I just don't think that would be the best thing was for me to get back on the horse. I had to get out and play and I guess just try to put it behind me.”
Stanford certainly found a way to get her game on track in her bogey-free opening round on Thursday. She hit 8 of 14 fairways and needed just 26 putts en route to shooting 65, which tied her lowest round of the year.
“I hit it really well today, really solid, and I've been hitting it solid,” said Stanford. “I think finally the ball found the bottom of the hole a little bit faster. I think if you can keep it in the fairways on this golf course, you'll have chances at birdie.”
Tournament of Youth? Last year Lydia Ko became the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history by capturing a victory at the CN Canadian Women’s Open outside Vancouver. Ko, 16, now sits in a tie for the lead again after Round 1 of this year’s event but perhaps it might be another youngster who is chasing her down over the final few days.
Seventeen-year-old Charley Hull, who was paired with Ko on Thursday, put herself into contention by shooting a 1-under 69 in the opening round of this year’s CN Canadian Women’s Open at Royal Mayfair to sit in a tie for 18th. Hull looked like she might sit even higher on the leaderboard prior to bogeying the final two holes in here round.
“I played pretty solid,” Hull said. “I just hit one on 17 and then I missed a silly little putt on 18. I just feel tired because I haven't been home for six weeks because I had quite a few competitions coming into the British Open, and I was back home for four days and then I come here, and then Solheim. I'm feeling pretty happy with my game and just going to practice some short putts after for a bit.”
The pairing of Ko, Hull and 22-year-old Canadian Jennifer Kirby was promoted for its youth but the trio certainly didn’t play like newbies to this level of competition. They combined to go 9-under-par for the day with Ko shooting a 5-under 65 and Kirby tallying a 3-under 67.
“I think it's pretty good,” Hull said of twhat the group was able to shoot. “I just see age as just a number. That's how I see it, because I feel like we're both mature. It's good to have something because then you can just talk about stuff outside golf, but like on the golf course, no, I don't think Lydia plays like she's 16.”
American onslaught: There was plenty of disappointment felt by the U.S. Solheim Cup Team following their loss last week to the Europeans at Colorado Golf Club outside Denver. But there didn’t appear to be too many lasting effects of the loss based on the performance of those players in Thursday’s first round of the CN Canadian Women’s Open.
Three of the American players found themselves in the top 5 after Thursday’s first round with Angela Stanford tied for the lead at 5-under-par while Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr were tied for fourth after shooting 4-under 66. Brittany Lincicome was also near the top of the leaderboard, as she sat in a tie for 11th at 2-under-par after her opening round.
“I mean, there's no excuses for last week,” said Kerr. “They just played better than us. We tried as hard as we could. I mean, that's a team competition. Somebody could go undefeated and you could lose. Our first Solheim Cup I won one point and lost four and we ended up winning, so it's kind of an interesting competition like that. But yeah, I'm glad to be in one on one competition now and ready to go.”
Kerr had a chance to finish tied for the lead but missed a 5-foot par putt on the 9th hole, her final hole of the day, to finish at 4-under 66.
“It's only the first day, too,” said Kerr. “There's three more days, and you have to play solid for four straight days. Even the person that wins the tournament eventually is going to miss a five footer during the week, unless you win by 12. That's just the way it goes.”
Park back in action: Top-ranked Inbee Park got right back to work after a two-week break from Tour action and opened this week with a 3-under 67 on Thursday. The South Korean said that the dry, warm conditions in Edmonton hardened up the course a bit, allowing her to go with shorter club selection and be more aggressive in her approach shots.
“The course dried out a lot so it played a little bit shorter than it did in the practice round, so I was hitting a little bit shorter irons, so I was able to attack some pins and I was able to make more birdies than I thought I could have made out there,” said Park. “I putted really good out there today, so I feel really good about it.”
Park had 26 putts in her first round, nearly three less than her season average (29.02) and didn’t let a poor start hold her back. She had two bogeys in her first three holes, but didn’t get hung up on her early blunders.
“The first three holes doesn't really mean anything because you still have 15 more holes to play, and I was just 1 over, and on this golf course that's not that bad of a score,” said Park. “The first couple bogeys were not that bad of shots, but out of the rough it's just tough to judge how much release you're going to get. I have been getting like 20 to 30 releases, sometimes I get 10, sometimes I get 30, so a couple of bad bounces on the first couple holes were the bogeys.”
She recovered with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 and another set on Nos. 2 and 3. The 25-year old said she’ll be ready for some softer conditions at her 8:15 a.m. tee time on Friday and said how she loves the challenging track at Royal Mayfair.
“Tomorrow morning it'll play a little bit longer probably with the cold weather, but the course is playing very fair, and I think it's a very good challenging course,” said Park.
Praising the course: Paula Creamer played well the last time the CN Canadian Women’s Open was held at Royal Mayfair Golf Club back in 2007. Creamer, who finished runner-up that year at the event, got off to another hot start this year in Edmonton, shooting a 4-under 66 to put herself in a tie for fourth.
“I hit the ball really well,” Creamer said. “I started off with a bogey on the 1st hole but kept giving myself some chances after that and kind of settled down into the round. 8:15 is an early tee time, so my body wasn't quite awake when we were teeing off. But I finished really strong, started to make some good putts and hit it close.”
One day after Karrie Webb lauded the condition of the golf course here at the Royal Mayfair to a local paper, saying that the course is one of the best conditioned they’ve had on Tour this year, Creamer echoed her sentiments. She also that this course should provide a good test for the player this week.
“I agree with that,” Creamer said of Webb’s assessment. “The golf course has some bounce to the fairways and the rough is really thick, so you miss fairways and you're pretty much in trouble. You've got to figure out how to salvage a 4. And the greens are great. It really is a good test of golf out here, and you've got to be able to put the ball in the right spot. If not, it's going to be a long day out there.”
Quote of the Day: “I think that they're wise beyond their years and they're both great players, so it wasn't too bad, and I didn't feel too old.” 22-year old Jennifer Kirby on playing with 16-year old Lydia Ko and 17-year old Charley Hull
Of Note…Rolex Rankings No. 2 Stacy Lewis withdrew from this week’s event due to illness after finishing the first round. Lewis shot a 4-over 74 in Thursday’s first round…
VIEW ALL THE CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN SCORES
CLICK HERE
Labels: LPGA TOUR
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