FRISCO, Texas — Jeeno Thitikul walked off the fifth inexperienced after a double bogey within the first spherical of the KPMG Girls’s PGA Championship, reminding herself to remain affected person and that some missed photographs will occur.
“Majors, you are going to miss anyway,” stated Thitikul, who’s No. 2 within the girls’s world rating. “A solution to bounce again, it is extra essential.”
Thitikul discovered a manner to do this on a scorching and windy Thursday, ending with a 4-under 68 for a one-stroke lead over Minjee Lee (69). Haeran Ryu, Rio Takeda and Somi Lee all shot 70.
Thitikul adopted that solely gap over par with a par earlier than she made 5 birdies in a six-hole stretch, with a 60-footer on the par-3 eighth gap in the course of three in a row.
“My putter went very well,” stated the 22-year-old from Thailand, who’s searching for her first main title. “Within the entrance 9, we had numerous breeze going, and greater than the again 9, however like [made] putts 7, 8, 9, which boosts the arrogance up, making the flip to the again 9.”
Thitikul, who lives within the Dallas space, wanted solely 25 putts on the Fields Ranch East course at PGA Frisco. Her makes measured 199½ ft.
Solely 15 of 156 gamers broke par, with no bogey-free rounds on a day when temperatures reached the mid-90s Fahrenheit and it felt even hotter. There have been additionally the ever-present Texas winds on a extra open structure after final yr’s Girls’s PGA at tree-lined Sahalee exterior Seattle.
Maja Stark, who three weeks in the past gained the U.S. Girls’s Open, shot a 3-over 75. Defending champion Amy Yang completed with a 76, and was one of many final gamers off the course on a day with six-hour rounds.
Thitikul performed with top-ranked Nelly Korda (72) and No. 3 Lydia Ko (75).
Korda, who aggravated a neck damage with a shot out of the tough throughout a observe spherical Monday, opened with seven consecutive pars in a spherical that had two birdies and two bogeys. Ko was the one one within the group to make a birdie on the 513-yard, par-5 first gap, however did not make one other the remainder of the day.
Although Korda stated she does not really feel ache hitting photographs, the two-time main champion stated she has ache “simply with rotation” of her neck and that it’s arduous to sleep at night time.
“It is higher, yeah. Getting higher day by day, which is sweet,” she stated. “Simply because I injured it final yr, at any time when I do injure my neck, it takes a bit of bit longer than regular. … Simply takes me like every week to type of get better after I tweak my neck now.”
Korda opened with seven pars, together with on the 317-yard, par-4 seventh gap, the place she hit a 294-yard drive right into a valley simply in need of the inexperienced. Her preliminary pitch from there ricocheted off the sting of the inexperienced and rolled again down the slope to the place she was. Korda hit her subsequent shot to 2 ft.
That fifth gap for Thitikul began with a drive out of bounds and a penalty. Her birdie streak started with a virtually 18-footer at No. 7 earlier than the lengthy one on the eighth. She rolled in a 35-foot birdie at No. 17 and simply missed making one other greater than twice that lengthy on the 434-yard, par-4 18th.
Two-time main winner Lee, a 29-year-old Australian, hasn’t gained since 2023. She opened Thursday with a bogey and completed with two bogeys during the last three holes. In between, she made seven birdies.
“I really feel like they had been fairly delicate bogeys. … Properly, on 16, that was a bit delicate and clearly the primary gap is a par 5. I must be making birdie or par, as a minimum,” Lee stated. “Clearly, there will probably be bogeys, however I believe for me, I simply attempt to keep affected person. If I make a bogey, I simply attempt to again it up with one thing higher than that. Cannot get forward of your self, particularly in this sort of climate. I believe it is extra simply the warmth that is draining your focus.”
Lee bogeyed the 425-yard twelfth gap, the place she drove into thick tough to the precise and from there went into the left tough. She saved par on the par-3 thirteenth by blasting from a bunker to 5½ ft and had consecutive birdies to get to five underneath — the bottom by anybody within the first spherical. Then got here her late bogeys, lacking a 7-foot par on the sixteenth and hitting her strategy on the 18th right into a bunker.
