KirkwoodGolf: Evian Championship: Last lady pro Major tournament of 2015

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Evian Championship: Last lady pro Major tournament of 2015



 Lexi Thompson shares lead with Lee on 66



NEWS RELEASE FROM LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR
By BETHAN CUTLER, LET Media Manager
Lexi Thompson, pictured above,  of the United States and Mi Hyang Lee of South Korea fired a matching pair of five under par 66s to share the lead on day one of the Evian Championship, the final Major of 2015.

Thompson made a spectacular start, picking up five shots in four holes from the 12th, including an eagle on the par-5 13th.

Lee, the winner of the 2014 New Zealand Women’s Open, joined her with seven birdies against two bogeys on the Evian Resort Golf Course in Haute Savoie, France.

The pair are one stroke clear of Eun-Hee Ji of South Korea, Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum and Gerina Piller of the United States. 
A stroke further back on three under par 68 are last week’s Helsingborg Open champion Nicole Broch Larsen from Denmark, the recent ISPS HANDA Ladies European Masters winner Beth Allen from the USA, Australian Minjee Lee, China’s Shanshan Feng and South Korean Sei Young Kim.

Thompson finished second at the 2010 Evian Masters as a 15-year-old amateur and was third in 2013, so has good memories of the location.

The 2014 Kraft Nabisco Champion, due to make her second Solheim Cup appearance next week in Germany, commented: “I'm definitely pretty happy with my first round. I had a good stretch on my first nine on the back nine there and made a few birdies and an eagle, so helped out with the scorecard. But, yeah, overall very exciting ride.”

Broch Larsen, who is playing in the Evian Championship for the first time, began her second Major with a birdie on the second and she made the turn at three under after a rolling in a putt of 11 metres for eagle on the par-5 ninth. Although she made bogey on hole-10, she recovered by making a short one metre putt for birdie on the par-3 16th.

“I played very well today, very solid, and when I missed the green I made some great up and downs,” said Broch Larsen. “Actually I missed a few short ones for birdies but minus three is a nice start. I hit a good drive, 5 wood to 11 metres and made that one.”

Allen, who is also making her Evian debut, started from the 10th hole and bogeyed the 12th before picking up birdies on 13, 16 and 17 on the back nine. She bogeyed the first, but made two more birdies on six and nine.

Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall is the top ranked European Solheim Cup team member after she shot a solid two under par 69 to sit in a share of 12th place.

She said: “I struggled a little bit last week in Sweden on the greens, and I felt like I made a couple more putts today. It just feels good to see a couple roll in. Hopefully there can be some more in the coming days. But I'm happy with the red number today. I played really well from tee to green, but at least I made three-putts today. So I'm happy with that. I had a lot of good looks, but last week I didn't make a single putt, so today I made three, so that's going forward.”

Fellow Solheim Cup player Charley Hull fired an opening one under par 70 and she said: “I’m happy. I felt like I played well. I had nothing that went in today apart from my eagle putt on nine, so I was a bit frustrated because I could have birdied the last three holes and they all lipped out.”
 ALL THE FIRST-ROUND SCORES
 par 71
T1 Lexi Thompson 66   .
T1 Mi Hyang Lee 66
T3 Eun-Hee Ji 67
T3 Pornanong Phatlum 67
T3 Gerina Piller 67
T6 Minjee Lee 68
T6 Beth Allen 68
T6 Hans Reimers 68
T6 Shanshan Feng 68
T6 Sei-Young Kim 68
T6 Min Lee 68
T12 Jenny Shin 69
T12 Lydia Ko 69
T12 Caroline Hedwall 69
T12 Morgan Pressel 69
T12 Jin Young Ko 69
T17 Brittany Lincicome 70
T17 Pernilla Lindberg 70
T17 Jodi Ewart Shadoff  70
T17 Mariajo Uribe 70
T17 Brooke Henderson 70
T17 Alison Lee 70
T17 Charley Hull 70
T17 Jennifer Song 70
T17 Haru Nomura 70
T26 Jacqui Concolino 71
T26 Xiyu Lin 71
T26 Sandra Gal 71
T26 Ilhee Lee 71
T26 Mirim Lee 71
T26 Karine Icher 71
T26 I.K. Kim 71
T26 Candie Kung 71
T26 Mina Harigae 71
T26 Meena Lee 71
T26 Alison Walshe 71
T26 Brittany Lang 71
T26 Lee-Anne Pace 71
T26 Karrie Webb 71
T40 Amy Anderson 72
T40 Su-Hyun Oh 72
T40 Leona Maguire (am) 72
T40 Ryann O'Toole 72
T40 Rebecca Artis 72
T40 Jaye Marie Green 72
T40 Amy Yang 72
T40 Austin Ernst 72
T40 Inbee Park 72
T40 Catriona Matthew 72
T40 Anna Nordqvist 72
T40 Sadena Parks 72
T40 Julieta Granada 72
T40 Chella Choi 72
T40 So Yeon Ryu 72
T40 Gwladys Nocera 72
T56 Lizette Salas 73
T56 Laura Davies 73
T56 Stacy Lewis 73
T56 Ssu-Chia Cheng 73
T56 Kim Kaufman 73
T56 Emily Pedersen 73
T56 Marina Alex 73
T56 Ariya Jutanugarn 73
T56 Kelly Tan 73
T56 Mathilda Cappeliez 73
T56 Christina Kim 73
T56 Hyo-Joo Kim 73
T56 Mo Martin 73
T56 Carlota Ciganda 73
T70 Hannah Burke 74
T70 Ayako Uehara 74
T70 Paula Creamer 74
T70 Mika Miyazato 74
T70 Yani Tseng 74
T70 Q Baek 74
T70 Caroline Masson 74
T70 Beatriz Recari 74
T70 Wei-Ling Hsu 74
T70 Maria McBride 74
T80 Alena Sharp 75
T80 Belen Mozo 75
T80 Klara Spilkova 75
T80 Ai Miyazato 75
T80 Ha Na Jang 75
T80 Cristie Kerr 75
T80 Michelle Wie 75
T80 Katie Burnett 75
T80 Kelly Shon 75
T80 Joanna Klatten 75
T80 Jessica Korda 75
T80 Suzann Pettersen 75
T80 M.J. Hur 75
T80 Azahara Munoz 75
T80 Kris Tamulis 75
T80 Agathe Laisne 75
T80 Thidapa Suwannapura 75
T97 Danielle Kang 76 .
T97 Juli Inkster 76
T97 SooBin Kim 76
T97 Hannah O'Sullivan 76
T97 Sun Young Yoo 76
T102   Maria Hernandez 77
T102   Sydnee Michaels 77
T102   Moriya Jutanugarn 77
T102   Sarah Kemp 77
T102 Jane Park 77
T102 Melissa Reid 77
T108 Min Seo Kwak 78
T108 Celine Boutier (am) 78
T108 Angela Stanford 78
T108 Sarah Jane Smith 78
T108 Albane Valenzuela 78
T113 In Gee Chun 79
T113 Tiffany Joh 79
T113 Paula Reto 79
T113 P.K. Kongkraphan 79
T117 Sakura Yokomine 80
T117 Hee Young Park 80
119 Natalie Gulbis 81 .
120 Connie Chen 82


- - - - - - - -