GRAND RAPIDS Mich. — Nelly Korda stumbled once more Thursday in her first occasion since lacking the reduce within the U.S. Ladies’s Open, dropping 4 strokes on the primary three holes in a 4-over 76 on the windy Meijer LPGA Traditional.
The highest-ranked Korda was tied for 133rd within the 144-player subject, 11 strokes behind chief Alison Lee at Blythefield Nation Membership.
Korda shot 80-70 — making a ten on a gap within the first spherical — two weeks in the past within the U.S. Ladies’s Open in Pennsylvania. She got here into the Ladies’s Open with six victories in her final seven tournaments, together with a serious that tied an LPGA Tour report for 5 wins in a row.
On Thursday at Blythefield, the place she gained in 2021 at a tournament-record 25 beneath, Korda opened double bogey-bogey-bogey. Enjoying within the afternoon in a gaggle with fellow previous champions Brooke Henderson and Leona Maguire, Korda was even par the remainder of the way in which, offsetting three bogeys with three birdies.
Lee shot 65. Winless on the tour, she eagled the par-5 eighth and had seven birdies and a bogey.
“Undoubtedly very nice to shoot a low one right this moment,” Lee mentioned. “Undoubtedly giving plenty of credit score to my putter. Even I made plenty of actually, actually good par saves, and plenty of good birdies.”
Henderson, the Canadian who the occasion in 2017 and 2019, was two strokes again at 67 with 2022 champion Jennifer Kupcho, Lizette Salas, Benedetta Moresco, Narin An, Carlota Ciganda, Ssu-Chia Cheng, Lauren Hartlage and Daniela Darquea.
“It was extraordinarily windy,” Henderson mentioned. “It was actually robust to evaluate. I really feel like the primary few holes I didn’t hit a fairway and was actually getting up-and-down, made loads clutch par saves, which actually stored the momentum and the spherical going.”
Lilia Vu, a former No. 1 participant and double main winner final 12 months, opened with a 69 — enjoying alongside Lee — in her return from a again harm that sidelined her because the Ford Championship in Arizona on the finish of March.
“Performed with my good pal Alison,” Vu mentioned. “It was enjoyable. She performed very well, so stored me in test.”
Lexi Thompson, the 2015 winner, shot 71. She has gone greater than 5 years with out successful. Thompson has mentioned this can be her final 12 months enjoying a full schedule.
Defending champion Maguire eagled the par-5 18th for a 72.
