NORTON, Mass. — Allisen Corpuz stored her persistence whereas spinning her wheels for a lot of the 12 months and at last noticed some good outcomes Thursday when she opened the FM Championship with a 7-under 65 to share the first-round lead with Sei Young Kim.
Corpuz had 4 birdies on her final six holes on the TPC Boston, holing a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-4 ninth to catch Kim, who performed in calmer situations within the morning.
Nelly Korda switched putters to extra of a blade and noticed it repay with seven birdies in a spherical of 67 in her debut on the TPC Boston course that beforehand hosted one of many 4 PGA Tour postseason occasions.
Corpuz has just one LPGA victory and it was a giant one – the U.S. Girls’s Open at Pebble Seashore two years in the past. She had a pair of high 10s early within the 12 months, together with a 3rd within the Ford Championship in Phoenix in late March. That was her final high 10.
“Simply really feel like golf is such a humorous sport,” Corpuz stated. “Even when it hasn’t been the outcomes that I wished to see, it is simply felt actually, actually shut all season. It was a very good begin to the season and type of simply really feel like issues are beginning to flip the nook a bit.”
Kim performed within the morning when the climate was barely cooler and she or he puzzled if that may make the course play longer with the golf ball not flying as a lot. However she birdied three of the par 5s till having to accept a par on the closing gap that has a big ditch in entrance of the inexperienced and large swales round it.
That is what tripped up Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand in her second week since returning to No. 1 within the ladies’s world rating. She blasted a tee shot down the correct aspect, however her strategy on the par-5 18th missed left and went down that steep slope. Her first pitch got here up brief and rolled again to her ft, and the Thai took a bogey for a 69.
Two tales have been in play all 12 months on the LPGA – 22 consecutive tournaments to start out the 12 months with completely different winners at each, and Korda not profitable any of them. Korda is coming off a seven-win 2024 and solely two weeks in the past misplaced the No. 1 rating to Thitikul.
Her 67 left her in a log jam of gamers tied for third that included Girls’s PGA champion Minjee Lee, Celine Boutier, Andrea Lee and Gurleen Kaur, the LPGA rookie who needed to undergo Monday qualifying to get into the sector.
Korda stated the Florida programs the place she lives aren’t in one of the best form within the scorching summer season, so she wasn’t certain what she considered the putter at residence. However she took it to Canada, appreciated the way it felt and stored it within the bag. It is a related mannequin to the one she was utilizing final 12 months.
“Simply one thing new,” Korda stated, who additionally went with a special grip on the putter. “I knew I had a lot success with that type of putter and felt assured with it. Simply wanted to really feel one thing completely different.”
