Minjee Lee tees off the the second hole today – photo USGA James Gilbert
Defending champion Minjee Lee is the best of the seven strong Australasian contingent after day one of the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, her round of even par 72 leaving her just four shots from the lead held by China’s Xiyu Lin and Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim.
Lee was off today (8.17am) and with two early birdies it appeared as if she might challenge for the opening round lead. But bogeys at par 5 6th, 12th and 16th holes saw her finish with a solid if unspectacular start to the defence of the title she won at Pine Needles 12 months ago.
“I kind of made a mistake on 6, the chip into the green, and I had a long putt and I made bogey, which is quite a soft mistake for me,” said Lee. “I was 2-under at that point and went to 1-under
“I feel like a little bit of momentum kind of stopped there, and any par-5 you’ve looking to make birdies. With the opportunities that you have around this golf course, I know how tough it can get, to have the birdie opportunities, so I tried to make them when I can, and the par-5s seemed to be quite gettable.
“But other than that, I feel like my game is there, I just haven’t quite had, I guess, the momentum and just everything come together to really produce a really low one, so hopefully I can get my butt into gear and have a really good second day and the rest of the week.”
Lee was asked where women’s golf is at now compared to even the short time she has been in the professional game and responded; “I can’t even tell you how different it is now. So many things are different just with even us players, the amount of talent we have out here right now, and it’s so diverse.
“Just the depth is so much deeper, and obviously the prize money has gone up so much even in the last five years that I have been playing, and it’s continuing to go up and up. Obviously the USGA have set such a great benchmark for all the other events, so that’s really cool to see.
“I think the venues, our venues have just gotten so amazing. Even being at Pebble, Baltusrol, so many great venues that we go to, and it’s just been awesome to play these tracks. I don’t think I would have thought that we would come here when I was first starting. It wasn’t even — I didn’t even think about it, but now that we’re here, it’s amazing to see.”
Sydney’s Grace Kim recovered from being 4 over with three holes to play with birdies at her 15th and 16th holes for a respectable round of 74 to be just six from the lead. A double bogey at the awkward 16th (her 7th Hole) put a dampener of a solid round but overall she is not too far from the edge of contention.
New Zealand’s, Lydia Ko’s opening round was brought undone by a horror quadruple bogey 7 at the par 3 5th when she hit her tee shot into a bush well left of the green and was forced to hit from the tee again. Things went from bad to worse and she eventually finished with 7.
To her credit however she bounced back with a birdie at the 6th and was well enough placed until another bogey at the par 3 12th which she again missed left and failed to get up and down. Ko appeared as if she might escape with a acceptable 75 until she pulled her approach to the last and failed to get up and down, the bogey seeing her sign for a 76.
Perth’s Hannah Green was going along quite nicely through 8 holes at even par but she struggled over the closing stages of her round to finish with 76.
Victorian, Gabi Ruffels, who has been such a dominant force of the secondary tour this season and is destined for LPGA Tour status in 2024, bogeyed her first hole and went backwards from there, eventually finishing with a round of 78.
Also on 78 were Perth amateur Madison Hinson Tolchard and New Zealand’s Amelia Garvey although Garvey recovered from a horror start when 5 over through 5 to finish at 6 over.
Perth’s Hinson-Tolchard was doing well enough at 1 over through 13 holes but a triple bogey at her 14th hole and two further bogeys ruined what might otherwise have been a solid start for the Oklahoma State University golfer.
